1988] 
Eberhard — Courtship in Himantigera 
119 
" 9-19 
Fig. 2. Initiation of tapping movements by a different male H. nigrifemorata seen 
from above and in front (drawn from tracings from a video recording). Numbers and 
dotted lines indicate number of frames after starting leg position (solid lines) and 
positions of legs at these times. After both legs were raised simultaneously to point 
upward over the male’s head (frame 9), the left leg was held immobile (9-19) while the 
right leg swung back and down (not shown); then the left leg was swung back (21-25) 
and then down (25), then moved slightly to the side (30). It was not possible to 
determine from the videotape whether the tarsus contacted the female’s arista. 
Often the joined tips of the male and female abdomens were 
raised and lowered repeatedly during or just before or after scrab- 
bling. The female rocked forward when her abdomen was lifted. 
Apparently these movements were caused by the male rather than 
the female, since in two pairs observed after their genitalia became 
uncoupled, the male’s scrabbling movements were often accompa- 
nied by brisk lifts of his abdomen which probably correspond to the 
