Eur. J. Entomol. 116: 187-193, 2019 | DOI: 10.14411/eje.2019.020

Mating activity of Pyrrhocoris apterus (Heteroptera: Pyrrhocoridae) in natureOriginal article

Alois HONĚK1, Zdenka MARTINKOVÁ1, Marek BRABEC2
1 Crop Research Institute, Drnovska 507, 161 06 Praha 6 - Ruzyne, Czech Republic; e-mails: honek@vurv.cz, martinkova@vurv.cz
2 Department of Statistical Modeling, Institute of Computer Sciences AS CR, Pod Vodarenskou vezi 271/2, 182 07 Praha 8, Czech Republic; e-mail: mbrabec@cs.cas.cz

The mating behaviour of Pyrrhocoris apterus in the laboratory is well studied, but little is known about it under natural conditions. In natural populations in Central Europe, overwintered adults start copulating in March and continue until their death. Caged females, kept under natural conditions in the permanent presence of males, copulated repeatedly. Their mating activity increased sharply until early April, then very slowly until the end of June and then declined as the females die-off. Half of copulations were short (< 5 h) and only 9% were longer than 1 day. By contrast, in natural populations, mating activity (percentage of individuals involved in copula) reached its maximum in April and then decreased until early July, when the overwintered adults die. The decline in mating frequency (percentage of adults involved in copula) was associated with a decrease in the availability of receptive females towards the end of the mating period. For a female, repeated copulation is necessary because sperm is nearly depleted after insemination of 3-5 egg batches.

Keywords: Heteroptera, Pyrrhocoridae, Pyrrhocoris apterus, firebug, behaviour, copulation, daily changes, seasonal changes, sperm depletion

Received: February 28, 2019; Revised: May 9, 2019; Accepted: May 9, 2019; Published online: June 14, 2019  Show citation

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HONĚK, A., MARTINKOVÁ, Z., & BRABEC, M. (2019). Mating activity of Pyrrhocoris apterus (Heteroptera: Pyrrhocoridae) in nature. EJE, 116, Article 187-193. https://doi.org/10.14411/eje.2019.020
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