328 
Psyche 
[December 
an alert posture, increased antennal waving, and oriented locomotion 
toward the female. Flying and wing raising are also released by the 
female sex pheromone, no contact with females being required. 
Wing raising is quite variable in nature and is frequently accom- 
panied by lateral spreading with fluttering. Wing raising is fre- 
quently performed by males engaged in forward locomotion. The 
majority of male-female contacts are quite brief, unreceptive females 
rapidly decamping. When a male contacts a female, he raises his 
wings, turns away from the female, and backs. About 20 percent 
of the time, an intense concentration of female sex pheromone is 
apparently solely responsible for the release of wing raising, turning, 
and backing when the male has come close to a female but without 
contacting her. A receptive female mounts and feeds in a forward 
direction over the male’s exposed abdominal tergites. Tactile stimuli 
release the male’s copulatory thrusts when the female is two-thirds 
forward over the male’s abdomen. When the female reaches the 
vicinity of the first abdominal tergite, genital connection is achieved. 
The female then turns, resulting in the assumption of the opposed 
copulatory position. Evidence for the existence of a volatile male 
sex pheromone is presented. The function of pheromone dissemina- 
tion is suggested for the male’s wing fluttering and flying. 
Also included in this communication are some observations on 
aggressive behavior and the behavior of copulating pairs. 
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 mating hehavior of Gromphadorhina portentosa (Schaum) 
(Blattaria, Blaberoidea, Blaberidae, Oxyhaloinae) : an anomalous 
pattern for a cockroach. Psyche 75: 124-131. 
1968b. The mating behavior of Eurycotis floridana (Walker) (Blat- 
taria, Blattoidea, Blattidae, Polyzosteriinae) . Psyche 75: 274- 
284. 
1968c. The comparative physiology of reproductive processes in cock- 
roaches. Part I. Mating behavior and its endocrine control. 
Advances in Reproductive Physiology 3 : 167-207. 
1970. The mating behavior of Periplaneta americana (Linnaeus) and 
Blatta orientalis Linnaeus (Blattaria, Blattoidea, Blattidae, 
Blattinae) with notes on the mating behavior of three additional 
species of Periplaneta. Z. Tierpsychol. 27: 722-748. 
