Effects of male harassment on females’ oviposition behaviour in Libellulidae (Odonata) 00

Kamilla Koch^a

Max-Planck-Institut für Limnologie Plön, Plön, Germany

International Journal of Odonatology, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages 71-80, 2006

https://doi.org/10.1080/13887890.2006.9748264

Published: 1 April 2006 (Received: 13 May 2005, Accepted: 29 November 2005)

Abstract

I investigated whether the level of male harassment affects females’ oviposition behaviour, such that females oviposit unguarded under suboptimal conditions and/or vary oviposition duration, dip number, dip frequency or number of oviposition site changes. The study species were the libellulids Crocothemis erythraea, Ortbetrum chrysostigma, Pantala flavescens, Sympetrum fonscolombii, Trithemis annulata and T. kirbyi ardens. Only a few ovipositions under suboptimal conditions were observed and females hovered lower under high male harassment. However, in only a few species studied oviposition behaviour differed with the level of harassment. No evidence for a special female strategy to avoid the negative effects of males’ harassment was found. Due to the great intraspecific variability females seemed to be able to react flexibly to current conditions, such as changing male density and the level of male harassment.

Keywords: Odonata, dragonfly, dip frequency, dip number, guarding behavior, male harassment, oviposition duration, oviposition site changes, sex ratio

Issue section: Article