Moulting and reproduction in the adult firebrat, Thermobia domestica (Packard) (Thysanura, Lepismatidae)—II. The reproductive cycles

Abstract

The female firebrat can mate from the first to the fifth day after ecdysis, but most mate between the first and third days. Mating initiates the deposition of proteinaceous yolk in the oöcytes, oviposition following 2–4 days after mating. Thus, on the average, 4·69 days elapse between ecdysis and oviposition, with a standard error of 0·13 days, so that oviposition occurs almost exactly half-way through each adult stadium. The male also mates most actively during the first third of the stadium if exposed continuously to females, but the potential for full mating activity persists into the seventh day of the 9 day stadium in celibate males. The difference appears to depend on a finite capacity to produce spermatophores in any given stadium. As a result of these restricted mating periods, isolated pairs of firebrats can reproduce only if male and female moult within 3 or occasionally 4 days of each other.