130 
Psyche 
[June 
SUMMARY 
The mating behavior of Gromphadorhina portenosa represents a 
marked departure from the typical pattern for cockroaches. The 
male recognizes the female upon contact and if the female is re- 
ceptive engages her in antennal fencing and mutual stroking of the 
body with the antennae. Then the male proceeds to walk around 
the female several times hissing softly in short bursts. Finally the 
male orients so that his abdominal tip is opposed to that of the female 
and achieves genital connection merely by backing into the female. 
Thus the opposed copulatory position is assumed directly without 
the preliminary maneuvering observed in most species of cockroaches. 
Also included in this communication are some observations on 
alarm behavior and aggressive behavior both of which also employ 
the curious hissing (produced by the expulsion of air through the 
second abdominal spiracle) noted in connection with courtship be- 
havior. 
References 
Barth, Robert H., Jr. 
1961. Comparative and Experimental Studies on Mating Behavior in 
Cockroaches, Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge, 
Massachusetts. 274 pages. 
1964. The Mating Behavior of Byrsotria fumigata (Guerin) (Blat- 
tidae, Blaberinae). Behaviour 23 : 1-30. 
1968a The comparative physiology of reproductive processes in cock- 
roaches. Part I. Mating behavior and its endocrine control. 
Advances in Reproductive Physiology 3 : in press. 
1968b. The mating behavior of Periplaneta americana (Linnaeus) and 
Blatta orientalis Linnaeus (Blattaria, Blattoidea, Blattidae, Blat- 
tinae) with notes on the mating behavior of three additional 
species of Periplaneta. Manuscript in preparation. 
Dumortier, Bernard 
1965. L’Emission sonore dans le genre Gromphadorhina Brunner 
(Blattodea, Perisphaeriidae) Etude morphologique et biologique. 
Bull. Soc. Zool. France 90: 89-101. 
McKittrick, F. A. 
1964. Evolutionary Studies of Cockroaches. Cornell Univ. Agric. Exp. 
Station Memoire 3 89, 197 pp. 
Roth, Louis M. and R. H. Barth, Jr. 
1967. The sense organs employed by cockroaches in mating behavior. 
Behaviour 28: 58-94. 
