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  • 1
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Swarming Behavior, Sexual Dimorphism, and Female Reproductive Status in the Sex Role-Reversed Dance Fly Species Rhamphomyia marginata (1997)
    Springer
    Journal of insect behavior 10 (1997), S. 783-804 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8889
    Keywords: swarm ; sex-role reversal ; nuptial gift ; dance fly ; Rhamphomyia marginata ; Empididae
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Dance flies are predaceous insects which often form male mating swarms. In many species males prior to swarming catch an insect prey, which is presented to the female at mating. In Rhamphomyia marginata, females in contrast to males gather to swarm, while males carrying a prey visit swarms for mating. Here I describe the swarming and courtship behavior in R. marginata and provide data on sexual dimorphism and swarming female reproductive status. Females swarm in small clearings in the forests. There was no specific swarm-maker. The swarming period lasted for 2–3 h and peaked around sunset. Identical swarm sites were used each evening and for several years. The mean number of females in swarms (swarm sites with at least one female) was 9.9 ± 9.1 (range, 1–40; n = 107) in 1993 and 7.1 ± 7.0 (range, 1–35; n = 68) in 1994. No obvious competition between females in swarms was observed. The operational sex ratio in swarms was extremely female biased (all swarms, 0.04). Less than one-third of male visits to swarms resulted in mating and males were found more often in larger swarms. Nuptial prey consisted of male midges. Females seem to mate more than once. Swarming females had undeveloped eggs, whereas mated females in swarms had further developed eggs than unmated females. Amount of sperm in the spermatheca was correlated with egg size. Amount of sperm and egg size did not correlate with wet weight, wing length, or wing load, except for egg size and weight. The wing coloration pattern and shape in R. marginata females are unique among dance flies, being greatly enlarged (1.6 times larger than that of males) and bicolored (gray part, 60% of wing area). When females, instead of males, possess extravagant secondary sexual characters, it is predicted from sexual selection theory that females should compete for males and that males should be selective in their choice of partner. A sex-role reversal will evolve when assess to males limit female reproductive success. The dance fly species R. marginata, like Empis borealis, another dance fly species studied earlier and discussed here, seems to fit these predictions.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:JOIR.0000010413.20596.28
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  • 2
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Marking pheromones ofAlpinobombus males (1979)
    Springer
    Journal of chemical ecology 5 (1979), S. 603-615 
    Details
    ISSN: 1573-1561
    Keywords: Hymenoptera ; Apoidea ; Alpinobombus ; bumble bees ; male sexual behavior ; marking pheromone blends ; attractant ; labial gland ; chemotaxonomy
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Chemistry and Pharmacology
    Notes: Abstract The male marking pheromone blends which emanate from the cephalic part of the labial gland, have been analyzed in four species of the bumble bee genusAlpinobombus, viz.,A. alpinus,A. balteatus, A. hyperboreus, andA. polaris, by combined capillary gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and thin-layer chromatography. In all, 36 specimens were analyzed.A. alpinus andA. polaris, which are similar morphologically, both showed an acetogenic composition of the pheromone blend. The dominant compound inA. alpinus proved to be a hexadecenol, whereasA. polaris had a hexadecadienol and a hexadecenol in the proportions 5∶2 as major components.A. balteatus andA. hyperboreus, another species pair as regards their morphology, differed more in their chemical makeup. Both mevalogenins and acetogenins were found in their marking secretions.A. balteatus is unique among all other male bumble bee species analyzed, 29 in total, by having C12- and C14-butyrates in the secretion, which dominated together with tetradecyl acetate and geranylcitronellol. InA. hyperboreus the main marking compounds are an octadecenol and 2,3-dihydro-6-trans-farnesol. This species also contains citronellol and geranylcitronellol.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00987845
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  • 3
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Swarm Site Fidelity in the Sex Role-Reversed Dance Fly Empis borealis (2000)
    Springer
    Journal of insect behavior 13 (2000), S. 785-796 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8889
    Keywords: swarm site ; swarm size ; site fidelity ; swarm marker ; encounter site convention ; dance fly ; Empis borealis ; Empididae
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract In the dance fly species Empis borealis (L.), females (1–40) gather to swarm at landmarks (swarm markers, like trees and bushes), and males carrying an insect prey visit these swarms for mating. We noticed earlier that some swarm sites were used for several years and that they appeared to be frequented by a similar number of swarming females in each year, although the numbers of females varied greatly among swarm sites and certain sites attracted more swarming individuals than others. To explore swarm site fidelity in this mating system, in 1993 we monitored the same swarm sites that we studied in 1989, addressing the questions, Would the same swarm sites still attract the same number of females and males after 4 years? and Why do some swarm sites attract more displaying females than others? The number of females swarming at the different markers in 1993 was approximately the same as 4 years earlier. Some of these swarm sites are known to have been used for 18 years. The swarm sites with the largest number of flies had a high sun exposure during the day and were found at coniferous swarm marker trees and in a mixed forest habitat. A swarm site with few females attending and with a low amount of insolation during the day can be predicted to be abandoned as a swarming site soon. Empis borealis swarm sites thus persist over many years and are attended by a similar number of individuals each year. To our knowledge, such site fidelity has not been demonstrated for any swarming insect species earlier.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1007826715423
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  • 4
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Why do males of the dance flyEmpis borealis refuse to mate? The importance of female age and size (1989)
    Springer
    Journal of insect behavior 2 (1989), S. 387-395 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8889
    Keywords: male choice ; size ; age ; swarming ; Empis borealis ; Diptera ; Empididae
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Empis borealisfemales form swarms, and males carrying a nuptial gift come to swarms to mate. Males either mated with one of the females (accepted swarms) or left swarms without mating (refused swarms). Males mated with the younger (low wing-wear) and relatively larger females in accepted swarms. They seemed to be able to judge the relative size of the females but to ignore their absolute size. Visiting males stayed shorter in accepted swarms as female size variation increased. This probably reflects their greater ease in choosing a mate among females of relatively different sizes. Females in accepted swarms tended to be larger and to have less worn wings than females in rejected swarms.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01068063
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  • 5
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Why insects swarm: testing the models for lek mating systems on swarming Empis borealis females (1992)
    Springer
    Behavioral ecology and sociobiology 31 (1992), S. 253-261 
    Details
    ISSN: 1432-0762
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Summary Female dance-flies, Empis borealis L., gather to swarm, and males carrying nuptial gifts visit swarms for mating. Field observations and experiments were performed on this behaviorally sex-role reversed species to test models of lekking behavior. The key predictions were: (1) female preference model: male visiting rate and mating rate should increase with the number of females in swarm (swarm size), (2) hotspot model: male visiting rate should be independent of swarm size, and (3) hotshot model: swarm size should be positively correlated with the body size of the largest female in swarm. We found that male visiting rate and mating rate increased with swarm size, and that mating rate per female increased with swarm size. Males also mated more often in larger swarms than in smaller ones. Both males and females visited swarm sites even in the absence of other individuals. When females were successively removed from swarm sites more males than females on average arrived at these sites: 2.25 males per female. When no individuals were present at the swarm site, arriving males moved on to another site, whereas arriving females generally stayed. Larger experimental swarm-markers attracted both more males and more females and even more males when swarming females were present. There was no correlation between mean or median female size in swarms and the number of females in swarms. Thus, the female preference model and the hotspot model were corroborated, while other models were judged unlikely to explain swarming behavior in E. borealis.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00171680
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  • 6
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Mate choice tactics and swarm size: a model and a test in a dance fly (1994)
    Springer
    Behavioral ecology and sociobiology 35 (1994), S. 161-168 
    Details
    ISSN: 1432-0762
    Keywords: Mate choice ; Swarm size ; Model Dance fly ; Empis borealis
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract In the dance flyEmpis borealis (L.) (Diptera: Empididae) females gather to swarm and males visit swarms for mating. A model was constructed, based on previously published data, simulating how males may choose among females of different sizes in swarms of different sizes. The focal question was, what influences the number of individuals in the swarm in this and possibly other swarming insects? The relationships between original swarm size and both the number of males arriving per minute and the proportion of males mating are both logarithmic. The model predicted that if these relationships were linear, or if males were able to judge absolute female size, the mean swarm size should increase and be at least four times as large as those found in the field. The only type of male mate choice strategy that gave rise to very large swarms (〉25) was size-related choice (if males are able to assess the size of a female in relation to the entire population and not merely to the swarm). Furthermore, no swarming behaviour would occur if males mate independently of swarm size. Thus, the numbers of females attending a given swarm site are influenced by male arrival pattern, male preference for larger swarms, the inability of males to judge the absolute body size of females, and female polyandry. Males searching for mates seem to prefer larger swarms than females searching for a swarm to join, but the mean swarm size is primarily set by the swarm size preference of females. Optimal swarm size predicted from the model was 4.68±0.53 females. In order to test model predictions, 69 natural swarm sites were studied during one season. The mean swarm size was 4.85±4.54 females (median 4.03), and about 90% of swarms consisted of 11 females or fewer. Predicted and observed swarm size did not differ significantly.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00167955
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