Environmental Entomology (1972) 1, 409-414

S. Bradleigh Vinson (1972)
Courtship behavior and evidence for a sex pheromone in the parasitoid Campoletis sonorensis (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae)
Environmental Entomology 1 (4), 409-414
Abstract: Campoletis sonorensis (Cameron) males exhibited 4 main elements of courtship behavior when exposed to females or odor-laden air from females. The 4 courtship behavioral elements were: orientation, wing vibration, antennal touching, and attempted copulation. Odor from females lowered the threshold for the behavioral elements of courtship exhibited by males.
Wing vibration may aid the male in orientating toward the odor source. Actual orientation of the male to another insect appeared to involve sight, while antennal touching was used by the male to position itself with respect to the female. Orientation and attempted copulation with males occurred as readily as with females in the presence of the female pheromone.
Both virgin and mated males responded to both virgin and mated females. Multiple-mated older females were less active in eliciting male courtship behavior. No region of the female could be isolated with respect to pheromone production. Ethyl acetate extracts of females were active in eliciting the courtship behavior of males.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Heliothis virescens
Campoletis sonorensis (parasitoid)	Heliothis virescens