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Science 27 July 1979:
Vol. 205. no. 4404, pp. 412 - 414
DOI: 10.1126/science.205.4404.412
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Articles

Adaptive Female-Mimicking Behavior in a Scorpionfly

RANDY THORNHILL 1

1 Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque 87131

This study provides a clear example of female-mimicking behavior by males in insects and evaluates quantitatively the adaptive significance of this behavior, which is poorly understood in many other organisms. Males of Hylobittacus apicalis provide females with a prey arthropod during copulation. Some males mimic female behavior when interacting with males that have captured nuptial prey, resulting in males stealing prey which they will use for copulation. Males that pirate prey copulate more frequently and probably incur fewer predation-related risks.

Submitted on November 27, 1978
Revised on April 10, 1979


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
How Not to Murder Your Neighbor: Using Synthetic Behavioral Ecology to Study Aggressive Signaling.
M. Wheeler and P. de Bourcier (1995)
Adaptive Behavior 3, 273-309
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