Mating behaviour in the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae)

• Ano de defesa: 2021
• Autor(a) principal: Gomes, Walysson Mendes
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Palavras-chave em Português: Ácaros rajados - Comportamento sexual; Acasalamento de animais; Ácaros rajados - Reprodução; Entomologia Agricola
• Link de acesso: https://locus.ufv.br//handle/123456789/32367; https://doi.org/10.47328/ufvbbt.2021.160

To achieve mating success, males and females perform different precopulatory behaviours. In sexual behaviour, males invest time and energy to carry out a series of behaviours patterns to attract or access the female. In some mite species, males perform a series of behaviours before mating with the female. Males of T. urticae remain on top of females in the quiescent stage until they reach adulthood. This behaviour can last for several hours and, knowing how to recognize the different quiescent phases can influence the male's sexual performance. Thus, this work sought to observe the male preference of T. urticae to two quiescent stages and between living and dead female deutonymphs. In addition, we describe and classify the sexual behaviour of males of T. urticae and create an ethogram that represents this behaviour in this species. Virgin males and females were reared separately on leaf discs until adulthood. Male preference experiments were carried out with virgin males in arenas composed of leaf discs containing each one of the treatments. The male courtship behaviours were recorded for twenty minutes. The ethogram was assembled manually, showing all the behaviour patterns performed by the males. Males of T. urticae can recognize quiescent deutonymphs and differentiate between living and dead deutonymphs. In total, seventeen out of twenty males copulated with females. Males performed a total of six behaviours. The order of occurrence of the behaviours varied between the samples. The male choice between quiescent protonymph and deutonymph and quiescent live and dead individuals are made through chemical cues. The behaviours performed by males of T. urticae are like those found in other species of mites and ticks. In T. urticae, male density and development without the presence suggested that these individuals exhibit stereotyped behaviour. Keywords: Sexual selection. Copulatory behaviour. Precopulatory behaviour. Male choice