ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PSEUDOFEMALE BEHAVIOR 
IN THE NEOTROPICAL COCKROACH GENERA 
BLABERUS, ARCHIMANDRITA AND BYRSOTRIA 
By Peter W. Wendelken 1 and Robert H. Barth, Jr. 2 
The basic constituents of successful courtship behavior in most 
species of cockroaches studied thus far are as follows: (1) The male 
contacts the female. (2) The male courts the female and gives a “full 
wing raising display,” elevating his wings to a nearly vertical posi- 
tion and turning away from the female. (3) The female shows the 
“mounting and feeding” response. She straddles the male’s exposed 
abdomen and moves forward. As she mounts, the female’s mouth- 
parts and palps are closely applied to the male’s abdominal tergites 
and are worked vigorously. (In some species, the female feeds upon 
secretions of specialized tergal glands.) (4) The male backs beneath 
the mounting and feeding female, extending his abdomen backward 
in copulatory thrusts. (5) Genital connection is achieved and the 
pair execute a turning operation to assume the opposed copulatory 
position (male and female facing in opposite directions). The 
opposed position persists throughout copulation which may last for 
an hour or more (Barth 1968a, Wendelken 1976, Simon and Barth 
1977a). Females and males are generally suspected of producing sex 
pheromones of varying degrees of volatility which function in the 
release of certain aspects of courtship behavior. The relative contri- 
butions of chemical and tactile stimuli to the release of the various 
stages in the courtship sequence vary considerably among different 
species (Barth 1968a). As a rule, female sex pheromones are impor- 
tant in release of male courtship behavior, including the full wing 
raising display (Barth 1968a, 1970; Wendelken 1976; Simon and 
Barth 1977b). And male sex pheromones are believed to be involved 
in release of the female mounting and feeding response which serves 
to position the female such that the male may achieve genital con- 
nection (Roth and Dateo 1966, Barth 1968a). The tactile stimuli 
produced by the female’s mounting and feeding response play an 
•P.O. Box 26, Marietta, OH 45750 
department of Zoology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712 
Manuscript received by the editor June 20, 1985 
493 
