MATING BEHAVIOR OF THREE SPECIES 
OF CONIOPTERYGIDAE (NEUROPTERA) 1 
By Victor Johnson 2 
and 
William P. Morrison 3 
There have been very few reports of the mating behavior in Coni- 
opterygidae. During the course of studying the biology of 3 species 
of coniopterygids in California we were fortunate in being able to 
observe several instances of courtship and mating behavior. These 
observations were fortuitous and made during, field collecting. We 
were unable to observe mating under laboratory conditions. 
Only 3 observations on mating behavior in Coniopterygidae have 
been reported in the literature. Collyer (1951) described a staggered, 
parallel, female-above position in Conwentzia pineticola Enderlein. 
He reported that in this species the male holds the hind coxae of the 
female with his forelegs and mouthparts. A similar staggered, paral¬ 
lel position was observed by Withycombe (1922) in Parasemidalis 
annae. Henry (1976) described a different type of mating behavior in 
Aleuropteryx juniperi Ohm — one in which the male and female 
mated in a tail-to-tail position. 
We have observed courtship and mating in the following 3 spe¬ 
cies: Conwentzia californica Meinander, Conwentzia barretti 
(Banks) and Semidalis angusta Banks. Observations were made on 
newly-collected specimens in Los Angeles County, California. 
Specimens were collected by aspirating adults into plastic 10- 
dram vials. During the course of field collecting, a vial would con¬ 
tain 15-20 adults. All observations on courtship and mating 
behavior were made in the vials within the first 2 hr following 
collection. After that time, continued observance of specimens did 
'The investigation reported in this paper (No. 80-7-51) is in connection with a 
project of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station and is published with 
approval of the Director. 
"Formerly Research Assistant in the Department of Entomology, University of 
Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40546. Present address: USDA-APHIS-PPQ, Box 
22277, Lexington, Kentucky 40522. 
"Department of Entomology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409. 
Manuscript received by the editor May 6, 1980. 
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