Abstract
Rosalia batesi Harold (Cerambycidae) is a hardwood boring species endemic to Japan. We investigated the adult mating behavior of this species in the field and laboratory. Most males appeared on mating sites before noon, significantly earlier than females did, in field observations. The female approached and contacted the male; the male responded and started the successive mating sequence, comprising mounting, copulation, and appeasement behavior. Before the encounter, the male raised its fore and mid legs and bent the abdominal tip ventrally. Next, a peculiarly structured bifurcate tip was exposed with opening and closing motion, which can be observed in the entire family Cerambycidae and is thought to be associated with the emission of volatile male sex pheromones. Male and female orientation toward conspecifics was examined using T-shaped olfactometers in four combinations (male–male, female–male, female–female, male–female). Males exclusively attracted females, indicating the existence of male-produced sex pheromones. A laboratory bioassay with three temperature regimes revealed the temperature dependence of this calling behavior. The calling behavior occurred only when the air temperature and male body surface temperature, which are associated with light intensity, were within the range of 26–33 °C and 26–28 °C, respectively.
Highlights
The chemical ecology and reproductive behavior of Cerambycidae have been studied mainly in pest species after the 1980s [1,2,3,4,5,6]
We report on the calling behavior of the male Rosalia batesi, and suggest an association between the peculiar abdominal tip morphology and the calling behavior
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a putative pheromone secretion spot in the abdomen in the subfamily Cerambycinae
Summary
The chemical ecology and reproductive behavior of Cerambycidae have been studied mainly in pest species after the 1980s [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The reproductive behavior of non-pest cerambycid species that live in dead wood during their larval phase has not been well studied, except for a few Xylotrechus species [7]. The Japanese endemic longicorn beetle, R. batesi, is distributed over most of Mainland Japan and has an important function of decomposing dead hardwood in the Japanese forest ecosystem. This species is very popular in Japanese culture, owing to its spectacular appearance and color. The mating behaviors of cerambycid species vary with the lifecycle and host characteristics [11,12] This species is known to exhibit a very peculiar biology: larvae bore deep
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