Copulation postures in Lepidoptera (Insecta)

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TThhee LLeepipdiopdteorpoltoegircaollSoocgieitycal Society ooff JJaapapnan
utLma 1)'anslopktSoc.Jqpan 54(1):47-67,January 2003

CopulationposturesinLepidoptera(Insecta)

AkiraMyATAi),H.S.YoNG2),Yatsukaho IKEDA') Hideo HAsEGAwAi)
and
i)Department oHnfectious Diseases ,Oita Medical Universit yH,asama, Oita Pref. 8,79-5593Japan
2)lnstitut SainsBiologi,Univcrsiti,Malaytt,50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract In copulation, most Lepidoptera unite with their abdomens end-to-end, their heads
pointing in opposite direction asn,d their forewing smaking slopes to both sides Lik earooi We
call i t'`roof type" copulation. However, the slope ofthe roofvaries according to difierence sin
length of the body and size of the wings. In a typical case "female's wings cover male's wings
(FCM)" or conversely "male's wings cQver female' s(MCF)" .In these cases, the female always
occupies the upper side with her head pointing upwurd during copulatien on incline dslope or
vertical surfacc. We eall this "female dominant (FD)" .`･Male dominant CMD)" is possible
but x,ery exceptional. Females always keep the position FD with very rare exception. In the
case of wing arrangement, FCM is apparently dominant, but often MCF occurs under natural
conditioii.
We classify copulation in Lepidoptera ,especially nocturnal moths, into fiv epostures as fbllows:
Subtype 1-Typical roof type (RT) ;Subtype 2-1-V-shaped postur e(VSP) ;Subtype 2-2-
Face-to-fa cpeostur e(FFP) ;Subtype 3-1-Horizontal wing posture (HWP) ;and Subtype 3-2-
Butterfiy posture (BP).
All subtypes may be derive dfl]o ma primitiye RT; Subtype 1 is the true RT in the strict sense.
In Subtype 2, the heads of both sexes point upward when resting on incline dsiope or verticat
surface. VSP is V-shaped copulation, in which the male approaches the female laterally h,ence
their bodies make a V shape. In FFP, the male late ron moves to his partner's ventral side and
assumes face-to-fa pcoesture. In HWP, as the wing size becomes large ra,nd the abdomen size
becomes slender, the slope of RT is reduced gradually f,inalt byecoming almost horizonta l.If
during copulation, the pair' wsings are held horizontall wye, call it HWP. And in BP, the pair'
s wings are held upright on their backs.
Key Copulation, LepidQptera, butterfly.
words posture, classification, nocturnal moth,
Observation sofcopulation in nocturnal Lepidoptera are very rare compared to the day-flying
species, because of diMcult iyn findin gthem at night, Fortunately we observed seme cases
under natural conditions and also on the white screen illuminate dby ligh tat night fbr
collecting moths. In ,the present paper, we describ ethe copulation postur ein each pair
observed in detai la,nd in addition we examine and discus sthe many photegraphs ofmating
pair sthat appeared in various llteratures.
tt

Method
1. When a pair of moths was found in copulation, we took picture sand observed them in
detai l.Our main observation fiel dwas Jizobaru, especially in the garden of the Kokonoe
Institu toef Natural History (KINH) ,situated at 3229-317 Jizobaru ,Machida, Kokonoe-
machi, Kusu-gun, Oita-pref i(abou 8t30 meters above sea level ;33009'05"N, 131011'oo"E).
2. As our observations are not enough to discu stshe copulation posture ofall moth families,
we reviewed many photographs from the literatu reA.mong them, we fbund some copula-
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48 Akira MiyAiA, H. S. YoNG, Yatsukaho IKEDA and Hideo HAsEGAwA
tion picture sof moths from three journa l(sJdpa nHeteroceiis tJsb'urnal ,Ytzgato ,and
insectarium) and two illustrat beodoks ashizaw a19,56; Hidaka [Ed, ]19,97). However, we
cou]d not find good picture sof copulation except butterfli fersom other journ asluchs as
(]ekkan=Mushi, Tinea,Kontyn, T7ansactibnsofthe Lepidbpterologr'Scbaclietyoj'Jbpan,

.lbumal of Researeh on the Lepidbptera, and .Jbumal of the Lepidbpteits tSsb'etety ,and
several books on Lepidoptera written in English or Japanese.
3. In the presen tpaper, the fo11owin gterms are used for explanation ofcopulation. In most
cases of copulation, male and female unite with their abdomens end-to-end and their heads
pointin gin opposite direction s.Their forewing smake slopes on both sides, resembling a
smal1 roof We cal1 it "roof typ e(RT in the presen tpaper)" as shown in Figs 1, IO-15 ,and
26-27. In Geometridae ,the slepe oftheroofis gentle a,lmost horizonta l.In these cases, we
call it "`horizontal forewing postur e(HWiP) "(Fig 1s8, 5],54 ,55, 58-60, and 63) . The RT is
apparently the basic postur ein copulation, but many other variations derived from it were
observed.
4. In the case ofRT, when the pair rests on a venical or inclin esdurface, usually the female
point sher head upward, and the male's head downward. We call it "female dominant
(FD)" ,and in the case of male's head upward, "male dominant (MD)" .FD is apparently
very common compared with MD. In some copulation cases, `lhe end of the male's
fbrewing scovers the female' swings (MCF)" b,ut mostly "the female' swings cover the male's
(FCM)" .These are used fbr descriptio onf the pair' swing arrangement,
5. In a posture derive dfrom RT, the male points his head upward, paralle lto the female,
and copulates with her lateral ly.The pair fbrms a V-shape . ifthey retain the posjtion until
the end ofcopulation as shown in Figs 33, 35 and 38, we call it "V-shape postur e(VSP)" .IC
after coupling, the male moyes to the female' sventral side, they mate face-to-fa acse shown
in Figs 30-32, 37 and 61, We call it "face-to-face posture (FFP)".
6. In most butterfl iaensd some moths, the wings ofboth sexes during copulatjon are closed
in an upright positio nabove the body as shown in Figs16,17,S2 and 56. We cal1 it
"butterfly posture (BP) ".HWP and BP probably reflect close affinity; we observed some-
times beth postures in one species or one genus, but one posture only in many species,
7. 0ther copulation postures ,derive dfrom conspicuous lengt hof wing and abdomen or
ditferenc ein body and wing sizes due to sexual dimorphism, will be detaile dunder descrip-
tion of the observed species.
Obseryation
We listbelow from literature;
examples ofcopulation our observations and where published
illustrated but
observations were with only photographs without any note, we append a short
supplementary explanation,
[I lFamily HEPIALIDAE = 9 e V Jij"*IP
1. Endoclyta excrescens U VZ V Jif
RT, FD, MCF: Ueda (1985 p)hotographed a pair by hand-pairing.
2. Gazo,yctr amacdenta t IJ V >i >< 9 - V va V
RT, FD: Pair photographed on a stem ofthe fatnil Gyramineae at 7 p.m,, August 26,
1983 ,in Nagano Pref (Nishi 1o9,86b) . This is RT lik eEL excrescens; in the photograph
male and female rested in horizonta lpositien ,but FD when Nishio fir sftbund it .Wings
of both sexes were closed, but abdomens were very long and did not cover each other,
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One hour 30 minutes late rb,oth individual tsurned their heads face to face.
[I IF]amily INCURVARIJDAE =?')ij" V Jij"lilF
3. Nemophora staudingereZla VXf<=tb'tJifff
RT, MCF: A pair on horizonta lfia tsurface was photographed by Matsuka (Hidaka,
1997) :Female with both leg sstretched and head pointed slightly upward; maie's head
downward.
pointed rather
[IIIF]arnilyPSYCHIDAE l'7 ffliSF

4. Acanthopsyche nigTaplaga J}k tiv q .7 J(f
Fig. 46, sketched from the photograph by Kobayashi (1973 )Th:e male's abdomen
insert eddeeply into the female' spupa case to copulate. After emerging, the wingless
female waited for a male's visit, with her head pointing downward, therefore her abdomen
end was in the deepes tpart of the case. The male's abdomen has elasticity to reach the
female' ssexual organ. Saigusa (197 4h)ad reviewed the copulation in this family .He
describe dfbur steps of evolution in copulation of the family .In primitive species, the
female has wings and can fl yout from her case for mating.
[IV]Family YPONOMEUTIDAE XJifllSl･

5. )[PonomeuM todyonetZtz `szi'n .$ JdiJIJX>if
We fbund a pair in the early morning efJuly 14, 2oo1, on the sliding shutter ofKINH
(Fi g1.; the righ ts{de is female).
[V]
Family SESIIDAE JJ <de )i7"Jij"X)I/
6. Pennisetia juen ijixen -itzXY-do S/,"
We found a pair of this species on a horizonta lleaf of a roadside plant in Kokonoe
near Mt Kurodake on the afternoon of September 1, 1980 (Fig 2.). The height ofthe leaf
was about 60-70 cm above the ground. The upper individu ainl the pictur emay be the
male.
Two copulation picture sof IVbkona pexnix (t ?( 7 F >i LJi jSi7") taken by Nojiri
appeared in I>zsectari u(m198 51,988) , These pictures depicte dthe same pair as they were
taken by the same person and showed similar arrangement of the leave saround the pair,
The pictur ethat appeared in 1985 is an example ofFD, and that in 1988 MD. The fbrmer
picture is probably correct, as the latte ris apparently upside down. The pair might be
affected by the presence of the photographer, with the female wanting te meve hence
dragging the male, which didn' twant to move and resisted her tugging. In these pictures,
the true copulation postur ewas cempletely disturbe dby the observer, We must take care
to approach a pair of day-fiyi nmgoths and butterfli beesc,ause the presenc eof an observer
could cause the male or femal eof the pair to attempt to escape, hence rendering their
copulation postur eabnormal,
Arita and Ikeda (2000 )publishe da monograph ofJapanese Sesiidae . They recorded
the copulation tirne of 2-3 species, with some observations of their mating behavior such
as calling by the female . The copulation of Skisi ardynchioidles (t hSiVJk do j/79) and
7)ichocero taconstticta (AtfF t ?e XJij Sf,") on the surface of an inclined slope is
apparently FD in a straight 1{ne . In the photographs of a single individpa lt,he head is
also always pointed upward, therefor "eFD" is normal in thi sfamily.
[VI ]Family CHOR.EUTIDAEixv i E F i )lf"liSl/
7. Choreutisfabninea7x>ifStlf7xviEFi
Accerding to the photograph of a pair taken by Ohbayashi (199 7on) March 7, 1995,
in Chichijima, Ogasawara Jslands ,the male and female rested with their wings upward, and
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the individual at the lower positio nmight be the female, Hidaka (199 7a)lso used the
same photograph , Fig, 50 is our rough sketch,
[VII ]Family OECOPHORIDAE -?7V7xS 7")erliSF
8. Diun2ea
eurpreij2]raS-m"*'?7Wxi7"Jij'
RT, FD: A pair on a tree stem photographed by Miyasaka (]99 2i)n Sanadamachi,
Nagano-pre£ on April 30, 1983 , Fig, 47 is sketched from the picture,
,
[VIII]
Family ZYGAENIDAE vMili'lilL
9. Erasmia putehella V' V v; Si S'
RT, FCM: Ohkubo (1991) horizontalleaf
photographed a pair on a
10. Elyewma westwoodZi Il7><7"))179pt rf
According to a photograph (Mik i19,98) ,the female rested with her head up and both
her fbrewing sfbrming a very gentl eslope; the male with his wings erect on his back like
butterf lgyot into a slit between the female' fsorewings a,nd his body is concealed complete-
ly from head to abdomen. Bocause this species has large forewin gwsith rather short
abdomen, if the female holds up her wings, the copulation is classified as BP. However,
she did net do so, and the male had to compromise to accomodate his partner .According
to DrKoshio's comment attached fbr this picture ,this posture is standard to the species;
the male fiie isn the early morning, and copulation takes plaee until noon time.
11. Zygaen aniphona /<= e )-vM7
RT, FD: Nishio (198 9p)hotegraphed a pair in the middle of July in Ueda City,
Nagano pref The pair was on a sta!k.
Nakajima (198 7s)howed two photographs of copulation, one on ItZibe triotsundota
and the other IIZZbe ittesnuts. Both are apparently RT and MCF. We believ ethat both
photographs were turned sideways, because of layout .The copulation might be FD.
[IX ]Family HYBLAEIDAE -t z-} zV 'E F }Jij"7ilF
12. H),bla feoartis s;i)tKm a>fiz -l zV i F}
Nishio photographed a pair on a horizonta lsurface at 11 : 30 p,m, ,Apri1 5, 1995 ,in
Ueda City ,Nagano Pref OSJish 2i0e0,0a) . According to the short explanation attached,
the male opening the hair tuft on his hind leg ,approached behind a female ,and attempted
to copulate flappin ghis wings. The copulation posture is not true TR; their wings were
somewhat oblique to the dorsa ldirectio snimilar to Figs 51 or 54. The pestur emust be
classified as HWI', The female' shead is pointed upward, and the male's downward.
[X]FamilyP\RALIDAE f1 tiN

13, Seirpophaga invertulas
RT, FD, MCF: Fig. 57 was photographed by H. S, Yong in the daytime in Sekin-
Selangor,Malaysia, July,1971,
chan, on
14 . Ii:},men iraee,urvaiZy Ynttf/1d ff
RT, MD, FCM: We fbund a pair of this moth on the white sereen for collecting
moths by ligh tat KINH in the morning of August 11, 2oo1 (Fi g3.).
15 . Datanoidle fsascia t1urst a Yt t},'Y?pt i ti
RT, FD, FCM: We observed the copulation of this species on two occasions, First,
we fbund them on the white screen at KINH at 7 : 20 a.m., July 21, 2oo1 (Fi g4s-5) . The
upper large rone was female ,with her 1arg eabdomen sticking out slantingly; the male with
all his legs contracted was floatin gin the air at the end of her abdomen.
RT, FD, MCF: in the second case, we found a pair on a screen door at KINH at
7:oo a,m,, July 26, 2oo1 (Fig 6s-7) , The pair stayed still in the same pose for 7-8 hours
after we fbund them; after that we caught them because we had to leave .In thi scase, his
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foreleg asppeared to be touching the doer.
16. AmppaTu induator1)i`?fviVi'gptiff

RT, FD, MCF: We fbund a pair on the white screen at KINH at 6 : oo a.m., July 6,
2001 (Fig.13),

17, Orthaga onerata )}t s7')t7 F ?( -t )lj"
RT, FD, MCF: We fbund a pair en a wall at KINH at 6 : oo a.m., July 13 ,2002,
18, E?idotntha olivaceads VXfxq= F ff V pt d ti
Sawazaki (198 4sh)owed a photograph of a female copulating with a dead male. It
was considered to be RT and FD.
[XI]FamilyPTEROPHORIDAE b V7")ij'1;)P

19, Oc]tyrode aconcmsa tt))2vl J{i b Vi"
According to a photograph of a pair of this species taken by Shinkai (Hidak a1,997),
they formed an H-shape because the pair' swings stretched jus tbesid etheir bodies.
[XII ]Family THYATIRIDAE F ff V i"Jiflill･
20. Demopsestt spunctiger aJtK S! ri ?)i F ff V !"
RT, FD, FCM: We found a pair on the white screen at KINH at about 10 : oo p.m.,
April3,2oo2(Fig3.9).

[XM] Family GEOMETRIDAE )/ v 7 tilil}
21, Archieants parthenia sip79Sf- J?7
Nakajima and Jinbo (1989 f)bund a male of thi sspecies fiying in the sky against the
wind in Mt Irikasayama N,agano Prefi at 4: 30 p.m. ,May 5, 1988. Then it stopped on a
small tree of Quencu msongoiica var. grastserwa taand copulated with a female waiting there,
Aocording to the photograph ,the pair was on a horizonta lside twig, and the female' sside
was somewhat higher than the male's side, Hewever, the photograph is considered not to
be in a natural position, but rather the twig was jncline dfbr layout,
22, A lsophilo iaderboasma - )S JE >f 7 u. Si Jv 9
RT, FD: Tanaka et aL (199 4p)ublished a photograph of a pair in which the female
stayed in the lower position with her head pointed downward. Later one of the authers
(Mizun o1,994) pointed out that the photograph was printe dupside down.
23. AJaxa seriaria rk Y S/ te 7
FD: The femal eopened her wings horizontail byu,t the male closed his wings dorsally
like butterfly his left (Ishizaw1a95,6).
a and crept under partner' s wings
24. Entephri acaesiata -V'V't ) -7' } Si rt ra
RT., FD, MCF: A pair was fbund insid ea window gla sosf a cottage in Ina City,
Nagano Prefi ,at 4 : 40 a.m., August 25, 1987 (Nish i1o98,8).
25. Heterothera taigana sounkeana Y9 >f7pJt tft ) 'Yte 7
BP, FCM: A pair was fbund in Ina City ,Nagano Pref, at 7 : 30 p.m. ,August 14, 1992
(Nishi o19,92) .The pair appeared to be hanging from the underside of a twig, with the
female' swings hel dupright like butterfly.
A similar photograph of Opa,zlphte rbarunnea (-t l -7 r-:}m ) -S/ ftiP) published
by Nakajima (1992 s)ho,ws it to be FD. In this winter appearing species, the female's
wings are very small but the male's wings are norrnal and held upright like buttediy .At
leas tsome moths of the family Geometridae normally rest with wings upright over their
backlike butterfly.
a
26. Abraxas tptv Sf"i)zSf"SivO
niphombia
FD, BP: We fbund a pair resting on the white screen at KINH at 5 : oo am., August
25, 2001, as shown in Fig. 17. In this case, the pair held their wings upright like butterflies.
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Figs 1-15. Copulation postures ofLepidoptera. 1. I))ononieuta tokyoneaus 2. Pennisetia
jZyeni]tu en3i. .R:ymenia recurvalts: 4-5. Datanoiclesfosciatus(samepai r)6,-7, D.
.fasciat u(ssam epair). 8-11, Athetis athisignata (8-10 :moving of pair ;11: different
angle of10). 12 .A.athtsigna ta(oth eparir) . I3. Arippara indicato n 14-15 .Rivula
(same
serieeads pair).
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I''

.
t
-, .-

Figs l6-29. Copulation postures of Lepidoptera. 16. Everes argiades I7. Abraxas nP
phont h ia , 18 .A, latdesciat a.19-20 .Eilema doplanapavescen s(same pairin diiferent
angle). 2 1 .E doplan apavescens 22-25 .Lithosi aquadea (al ldiifere nptairs ).26-
27. T71anatarct iianaequads (2 ditferen tpairs) . 28-29. Amata fortun e(isam epair.
but moving).
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27. Abraxas latdescia tta F X si "7 N' i7 :z 5' i"i ft r7
FD, HWP: We fbund a pair resting on a leaf of a fer nnear KJ'NH (Fi g1.8).
28, Cystid sinnatonice F )-)t?J[zY"Siftr7
In Ishizawa' pshotograph (1956 )a ,pair of this specieg was FD and BP. However,
Kuribayashi's photograph (198 5o)fthe same species shovLred a differe nptose, HWP. This
means this species has two copulation postures B,P and HWP. The genus Abraxas also
might have two postures similar te the genus C)istidia.
29. eoncinnata FltL!=:S'" )tir )'
,Rrotalois
FD, MCF: A pair on the stem of Pntnus ansu at 9 : 40 p,m. ,March 29, 1979 ,in Ueda
City ,Nagano Pref i(Miyasaka&Nish i19o7,9) , With strong stimulation, both individuals
began to move, then the male flutteri nhgis wings and the fernal ewalking. TD sum up,
the pair could not fly and the female dragged her partner strongly for one centimeter.
Apparently this pair could not cooperate to move to one directio angainst the stimulation.
30. PhigaEa sinuosa,t a)ie7V FtixtiYv7
RT, FD: In the geometrid moths that appear during winter season, the female 'wisngs
do not develop ,therefore after evening the female stays on a stem and her abdomen end
turns upward to release her pheromone (Nakajim 1a9,91) . Nakajima (199 8p)ub]ishe dan
excellent review with many photographs of this group.
31. Btsto nrobustus } ti '{i>'le1ji5i'Yv7
RT, FD: As shown in Fig, 43, sketched from the photograph by Miyasaka (1983a).
The copulation posture in most of the larg egeometrid moths is similar to B. robustus, as
shown in the dead pair of Bisto n.fragt7 Zrseported by Inoue (1960).
[XIV ]Family CALLIDULIDAE 1 )ig V e>f>ij'7ilF
32. Pteroclect a.fekler iK Ji jV 'E )-7V'
BP: Nishio (199 9s)tudied the mating behavior ofthis day-flyi nsgpecies, and showed
a photograph ofapair on the ground, The postur eis the same as BP, with the female'
s wings hiding her mate's.
[XV]
Family LASIOCAMPIDAE Ji jLiiNJij"$II･
33, Poeedocampa popufi 9XJ7r S do wx
RT, FD, MCF: Four pairs areund a streetlight in Wadamura, Nagano Pre£, en
November 6, 1983 (Nish i1o98,6a),
[XVI ]Family BRAHMAEIDAE d Jt:S >if$iP
34. Brahmaea veai7ibhii 1 r£iS>V
RT, FD, FCM: a pair photographed by Ishizawa (195 6a)nd another by Hashimoto
(200 0a)ppeared on the cover of lnseetan'u m(Apri l20,00) (Fi g4,9, sketched from the
picture),
[XVll]FamilySATURNIIDAE 'e-?"? LJif1$F

35, Attacus atlas 9J}Ji)"=-V-Y
VSP: phetographed by Jinbo (1995 ).The female' shead is pointed upward, and the
male was approaching her right side to copulate. The male's wings were held upright over
hi sback like a butterfl bye,cause ofobjects such as leave sand twigs betwee nthe two moths.
FFP: photographed by Minato (Hidak a1,997) , In this case, the female hang from
her cocoon and the front one was female , Fig. 61 was photographed by H. S. Yong in the
daytime at University of Malaya, Malaysia ,on August, 1983 on Ilsidiu mguay'ava,
According to the descripti onby Azuma and Kiajyo (1986 )a, male of A, atlas
responding to the pheromone visited a femal eand stayed at her side, then he bent his
abdomen end to her . The copulation postur ewas at fir sVtSP but soon the male turned
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180 degrees ,then became one straight line .However, thi sobservation was quite excep-
tional ;we thought tha tthis observation was carried out in a rearing cage and other males
prebably interfbr ewidth the pair . We asked Prof Azuma about this, and he answered
that FFP was the usual copulation postur ein this species,
36. Samia qynthia pt:yer iSi>'9aV')-
FFP: We found a pair of this species hanging from the twig ofa street tree, Ilex
rotuncia, at 7 : 45 a.m., August 16, 2000, in Fojimigaoka ,Oita City (Fig 3s0-32) . The pair
was about l60 cm above the ground, The copulation continued until the end of our
observatjon at 10:OO a.m.; we carne back at 5:OO p.m. to continue observation, but they
had disappeared.
37, Ctiligu ljaaponi c7aXV->f
VSP: Three pairs were obs'erIvned on the white screen at KINH from midnight, October
3, 2oo1 to the next morning, the firs ctase, we found a pair at 10:45 a.m., October 3
(Fi g3.3), but the pair moved as shown in Fig. 34, at 2:44 a.m., October 4.
The second pair was fbund at 3 : 10 a.m. October 4 (Fi g3.5),
The third pair rested on the cover ofa black ligh tat 5:49 a.m., October 4. The
postur ewas somewhat similar to FFP rather than VSP. We observed until 8 : OO a,m,,
October4,but
none moved.
We observed fbur other pairs on October 8, 13, and 14, 2oo1; al 1ofthem had VSP and
remained at the place we fbund them until the end of observation, Excepting Fig. 34, all
other pairs assumed VSP even on the fla tground. in the present cases, the male couldn't
move to the opposite side because of the very broad space on the white screen or the
ground. Therefbr ewe believ ethat jf the femal ewere waiting at a twig or on her own
FFP mightbe
cocoon, observed.
38. Saturniajonasiitflevv=L

FFP: photographed by Ishizawa (]95 6a)nd Obata (198 9a)s shown in Fig.48
(sketc fhreodm picture).
39. Rhodinia jugax I> J< 5' E' >if
According to a photograph taken by Ishizawa (1956 a) ,female jus etmerged from her
cocoon was copulating with a male that was also hanging her cocoon. The female' shead
pointed upward, but the male's head pointed downward. This might be derive dfrom
FFP.

According to a persona !communication by Mr Mitsuo Nakajima, he observed FFP
in the Actias artemts )trd l -2rJ71- in Oita Prefecture.
[XVIII ]Family SPHINGIDAE XJCpt Jti'ffllF
40. ]Elyloicus caligineus 7vXfpt
RT, FD, MCF: Ishizawa's photograph (195 6s)hows a pair resting on a stem,
41. Rsilogrammamenephron

RT, FD, MCF: photographed by H, S. Yong in the daytime in Kepong, Selangor,
MalaysiainApril,1990 inFig.62.
as shown
42, Marumba sperchiusPt,"Xlrl

FD: Miyata (20oo o)bserved apair as fbllow sA:t6:30 a.m., July 19, 1999 ,anewly
emerged female was fbund on the hedge of Aheha grandlrJf iilno vFaLlj'imigao kO4ita City.
Early next morning at 5: 30 a.m., she was in copulation with a male near her initial
location (Fig 4.1). When the observer approached the pair to photograph them, the male
with it sbody thrust fbrward watched him apprehensively (Fi g4.2) ,but the female djdn't
react to the intrusio n.Until the evening (7 : oo p.m.) ,the pair was stil lin copu]ation, but
about 8:30 p.m, the male flew off leavin gthe femal ealone in the thicket Miyata
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TThhee LLeepipdiopdteorpoltoegircaollSoocgieitycal Society ooff JJaapapnan
56 Akira MTyATA, H. S, YoNG. Yatsukaho IKEiD Aand Hideo HAsEGAwA
Figs 30-42 . Copulation posture sofLepidoptera. 30-32 ,Samia qynthia pt:Jie r(isamepai irn
ditfere nantgle). 33-34 ,Caiigul aJ'aponic (asame pair ,but late rchanged position) . 35.
C.iaponic a(otherpa ir36). .Emproctt spseudoconspeny a.37. Lymantria disparjapon-
iea. 38. L, dispa r.iaponic a.39. Demosestis punctiger a.40. Marumba gaschkeivit-
shii eclp)hron, 41-42. Ad Zsperchiu s(same pair, and male moved to watch observer).
discusse tdhe presenc eof a second male, which was presen tat a site about 50 cm from the
pair during the copulation period,
In the famil ySphingidae ,the observed pair sare alway sin tandem as shown in Fig.
45, but the example of M sperchiu scopulating in the thlcket suggests strongly that this is
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