Cuticular Compounds Recognition and Mating Behavior of the Rice Water Weevil Oryzophagus oryzae (Coleoptera, Curculionid
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Cuticular Compounds Recognition and Mating Behavior of the Rice Water Weevil Oryzophagus oryzae (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) Camila B. C. Martins & Emir B. Saad & Lúcia M. de Almeida & Paulo H. G. Zarbin
Revised: 6 May 2013 / Accepted: 13 May 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Oryzophagus oryzae mating behavior and mate recognition were investigated. Bioassays revealed that couples had intense sexual activity in the first 3 h of photophase and scotophase. Adults mated and re-mated at any time of day in the presence of water; however, in the absence of water, only 10 % of adults mated, meaning that water was important for couples to find each other. In the sequence of pre-mating behaviors bioassay four steps were observed and females were always attracted to males, seeking them, before copulation; after mating, males showed guarding activity of variable duration, allowing remating. Cuticule extractions revealed that both sexes had similar cuticular chemical compounds. They were identified as aldehydes and a ketone, probably because of its aquatic life habits. Bioassays suggested that males recognized females by their cuticle composition. Keywords Aquatic weevil . copulation . cuticle extraction . mate recognition . pre-mating sequence
Introduction Curculionidae is one of the largest families of organisms with approximately 44.000 species. Although a few curculionids are aquatic, particularly adult and larval C. B. C. Martins : E. B. Saad : P. H. G. Zarbin Department of Chemistry, Laboratório de Semioquímicos, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Brazil L. M. de Almeida Department of Zoology, Laboratório de Sistemática e Bioecologia de Coleoptera, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Brazil P. H. G. Zarbin (*) Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Brazil 81531-990 e-mail: [email protected]
J Insect Behav
Erirhininae (Grimaldi and Engel 2005), there have been no studies concerning the mating behavior and mate recognition of aquatic weevils. These traits may differ from terrestrial weevils that were more investigated so far. The mating behavior has been studied for a number of terrestrial weevil species, for example, Anthonomus grandis (Mayer and Brazzel 1963), Diapprepes abreviatus (Sirot et al. 2007), Cosmopolites sordidus (Viana and Vilela 1996), Euscepes postfasciatus (Sato and Kohama 2007), and Hypera postica (LeCato and Pienkowski 1970). Certain behaviors are commonly described for weevils, such as the postcopulatory mate guarding (Sato and Kohama 2007; Polak and Brown 1995; Vanderbilt et al. 1998), the tapping or stroking mechanism during courtship (Sirot et al. 2007; Vanderbilt et al. 1998) and several matings with the same partner (LeCato and Pienkowski 1970; Wen et al. 2004). Mate recognition is based on visual, olfactory, auditory, or tactile cues (Gillot 2005). In Diaprepes abbreviates, Cylindrocopturus adspersus and Aegorhinus superciliosus (Guerin) both males and females have n-alkanes or monomethyl-branched alkanes
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