104 
Psyche 
[Vol. 90 
a 
b 
Figure 2. Typical precopulatory behavior in Trichadenotecnuni alexanderae. 
a. A male in position to move beneath a female. b. The receptive posture of a 
female. 
and was brought anteriorly. This flattened the shelf against the 
male’s abdominal terga, and caused his paraprocts to extend slightly 
posteriorly. When fully beneath a female, a male’s epiproctal shelf 
was brought into apposition with the basal arms of a female’s sub- i 
genital plate and the sterna of her posterior abdomen. 
I studied how males orient themselves with females to produce a 
successful mounting. Individual females (N = 18) that had been 
freshly killed (by pressure from a forceps) from a Lake of the Woods 
culture were placed in a standing position on the substrate. Males 
always courted and mounted the females without losing orientation 
(N = 5). When I reoriented a female while a male was turning 
around after touching her with his antennae, he did not reorient to 
mount successfully (N = 3). If a female was moved as a male 
approached (that is, prior to antennal contact), a male was always 
able to orient and mount in the proper direction (N = 10). Hence, 
antennal contact by males appeared to be important for a successful \ 
mounting. 
When I placed a teneral male with a receptive female (N = 1), he 
ran to her, paused briefly at her side, but then did not exhibit any \ 
other courting behavior (e.g., antennal contact, wing fanning, etc.). 
Instead, he repeatedly climbed over her for about 10 seconds until ' 
she fled. The male made no attempt to mount, and the female did not , 
assume the receptive posture. ^ 
