Females may lay their eggs immediately or in the months after
copulation, and the oviposition strategies seem to be related to the length of the ovipositor.
Most courtships in the laboratory appear to end in failure with only about 7% of all courtships resulting in
copulation. Nearly 25% of the females do not copulate even though some are courted more than 65 times; of the females that do copulate, nearly 50% are courted by at least five different males.
The patterns of sperm precedence, the increased frequency of starting and stopping
copulation with less actual time spent in copula of second males, suggests that the second males could not successfully copulate.
Rubbing also occurred after
copulation. In one of five
copulations male vibrated his legs III briefly as in Epilancha borealis.
Multiple
copulations were common within pairs that mated.
The potential costs to
copulation have been established relatively well.
Thus, future studies that aim to assess the maximum reproductive potential of species under given circumstances should take into consideration the rate of effective fertilization, number of
copulations and pupal weight.
Banana-fed males significantly exceeded the number of
copulations achieved by males from T strain, while males from B and C strains were equally successful.
They then "project" their penises and each insert them into the other's vagina and start
copulation.
The duration of
copulations ranged from 27 to 43 min for A.
In Cephalodesmius however, there are several
copulations during nesting which suggests that this may play a role in the maturation of the female, though we cannot dismiss the possibility of sperm conflict with other males with whom the female has mated previously or the possibility that this is a vestigial behavior resulting from phylogenetic inertia.
Multiple
copulations enhance the risk of predation and parasitism, but those have also several advantages (Torres-Vila et al.