26 
Psyche 
[Vol. 87 
Figure 2. A guarding male of O. sericeus perched on a nest marker nail adjacent to 
an active nest. 
intruding insects, especially rival males, and permitted only females 
to approach. Each time the female returned to or left the nest the 
guarding male attempted to mount. During copulation, the mounted 
male faced the same direction as the female, and used his middle legs 
to grasp the female’s wings. The male’s front legs were drawn in with 
the tarsi touching the female’s pronotum and the hind legs helping to 
support her gaster (Fig. 3). During copulation males alternate 
between biting the female’s vertex and cervical region and antennating 
her antennae or frons. Some males were observed to copulate over 
twenty times per day, with a gradual decline in the copulation 
duration from about 2 min. to about 10 sec. 
After a female completed provisioning and plugged her entrance 
from within, the guarding male tended to patrol further from the nest, 
returning to inspect it intermittently. Such males usually took up 
defense of any unguarded nests they could locate. Presence of the 
male was not a prerequisite for provisioning; females nested whether 
or not a male guarded their nest. 
Alternative to guarding of active nests we identified three other 
apparent male strategies: patrolling, guarding of the initial landing 
