1983] 
Johnson — Claeoderes hivittata 
139 
Fig. 2. A male, with enlarged jaws for nipping rivals, guards a female Claeoderes 
hivittata as she prepares to drill an oviposition hole. A guarding male typically 
places all or part of his body (particularly the rostrum) over the female. A small male 
in the presence of a large male, however, may insert himself partly under the drilling 
female. 
Male Aggression 
Males fight for access to females. Initially they may intermingle, 
jerk, or lash their antennae. Attacks involve nipping, kicking, pok- 
ing with the snout, or putting the snout under the rival’s body and 
Jerking upwards 3 times/ sec. A male may also interfere \yith copula- 
tion by thrusting his snout between a mating pair and pushing. An 
attacked male may flee, or reciprocate in kind. 
Two males of approximately the same length may engage in a 
more stylized contest in which they align themselves, side by side, 
1-10 mm apart, facing opposite directions. On the side of the rival a 
male taps his antenna and hind leg 4-5 times/ sec, and when the 
opponent does likewise, the males fence leg against antenna at either 
end. The “appendage-fencing” contests observed in this study lasted 
3 sec to 9 min. 
Results 
Size Variation 
Male weevils in the June 13 sample (n = 67) ranged from 12-38 
mm in length and from 19-334 mg wet weight, i.e., the biggest male 
was 3 times as long and 17 times as heavy as the smallest. Males 1 1 
