Egg-laying job makes males hot: body temperature measurements in egg-laying tandems of the dragonfly Sympetrum vulgatum using IR camera

Abstract

Tandem oviposition, where males guide females in contact, requires quite a substantial muscle activity from males and, therefore, stronger heat production within the male thorax compared to the female thorax. In the present study, an infrared camera equipped with a macrolens was applied in the field, in order to estimate temperature in different body regions of male and female dragonflies Sympetrum vulgatum laying eggs in tandems. In both sexes, the thorax was considerably warmer than other body parts. The male thorax was on average 3-4°C warmer than that of the female. These observations support previous data that Sympetrum males have a stronger muscular activity and heat production in tandem during the egg-laying process compared to females. The data provide additional evidence that this kind of contact guarding behavior during oviposition is rather costly for males. The tip of the male abdomen was much warmer than its own abdomen in the middle region. This result might be explained by possible heat transfer from the female head to the male abdomen through the contact between male abdominal appendages and the female head. An alternative explanation might be strong activity of the muscles controlling male anal appendages. Finally, this study also demonstrated a strong potential of IR cameras in field studies of dragonfly behavioral physiology.