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Hapithus agitator Mating
by Wil Hershberger |
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Synopsis
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Unlike most members of the bush cricket subfamily (Eneopterinae), members of the genus Hapithus are flightless, making local populations more likely to deviate in mating behaviors. In 1967, Alexander and Otte reported that northern populations lack a calling song while those in Florida and some in eastern Texas have calling songs. Males of the more northern populations not only have no calling songs, they allow females to gnaw at their tegmina during sperm transfer. Males from those populations are often missing the distal portions of their tegmina. In fact, the title of Alexander & Otte 1967 begins “Cannibalism during copulation…" and Fig. 18 in their article is a map displaying where populations have been found with and without calling songs and with and without tegminal mutilation.
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Time 0:01 to 5:46
The video begins with the male (with his right side exposed to the camera) vigorously courting the female (with her left side exposed to the camera). He courts her by stridulating softly with his partly raised tegmina, drumming furiously with his maxillary palps, and touching her with his antennae. This continues for more than 5 minutes during which the male sometimes grooms his tarsi (="feet") and antennae by bringing them into contact with his mouthparts. At about 4:35 he lowers his abdomen, which may indicate he has started filling the spermatophore (=sac of sperm) that he will eventually pass to the female.
Time 5:47 to 14:17
By 5:47 the tip of the spermatophore can be seen emerging from the tip of the male’s abdomen. By 8:08 the spermatophore is fully exposed and the male has moved his body forward and backwards several times without changing the position of his tarsi. By 14:17 he has been pushed away by the female at least once, and has begun to rotate his body counterclockwise with tegmina raised and continuing to stridulate.
Time 14:18 to 15:52
By 14:24 the 180-degree rotation is complete and the female is mounting the male. By 14:33 the female’s head has reached the base of the male’s upraised tegmina. By 14:50 the female has lowered her abdomen as the male attempts to thread the exit of his sac of sperm into the female’s sperm receptacle. By 15:52 the spermatophore is attached to the female and the videographer has rotated the pair’s cage so that the right sides of the pair are facing the camera.
Time 15:54 to 24:50
By 16:41 the videographer has his camera positioned to continue the video, and the body of the spherical spermatophore is clearly visible attached by its sperm tube to the female’s genitalia. The female’s mouthparts are no more than half the distance above the dorsum of the male in order to be in position to munch on the tips of the male’s tegmina. By 20:10 a movement at the attachment of the spermatophore occurs and by 20:36 a movement of the male’s mouthparts can be seen. For the next 4 minutes little movement occurs and most of it occurs where the spermatophore is presumably emptying. Finally, shortly after 24:50, the pair separates and the male walks forward.
Time 25:00 to 29.14
The female appears to search for the emptied spermatophore and, finding it, turns her rear toward the male and proceeds to eat the spermatophore.
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It is worth noting that the rapid “drumming” of the palps maintained by males while courting females (with no comparable behavior by the females) is nowhere mentioned by Alexander & Otte (1967). Nonetheless it seems likely that the drumming affects the success of a courting male.
The Hapithus agitator specimens in the video were collected in Cool Spring Preserve, Jefferson County, West Virginia by Wil Hershberger in August 2020. Wil Hershberger has more videos, images, and sounds from nature at Nature and Sounds and Songs of Insects
