Preliminary study of mate choice in Platypus quercivorus (Murayama) (Coleoptera: Platypodidae).

Abstract

Platypus quercivorus (Murayama) has a complicated mating behavior similar to that of other species in Platypodidae. We observed this mating behavior in the field with a video camera, and divided the behaviors into nine phases. In successful matings, three phases required a relatively long time. As the female or the male might use the three long phases for mate choice, we compared the behavior during these phases in successful matings with that in unsuccessful matings. Five of 6 females in unsuccessful matings left the gallery in the log during the phase from the entered female's emergence until the emergence of the male's elytra. The duration of this phase correlated to times that the female walked forward and backward at the entry hole during this phase, and varied much in unsuccessful matings. These results show that the female who left early in this phase may have already decided to leave during the previous phase that was from the female's first entry into the gallery until the emergence. In contrast, the female left after the extremely long duration of this phase may have been willing to select the male but disliked by the male. Thus, both male's and female's mate choice may have occurred during these continuous 2 phases.