Abstract
The mating behavior of the sciarid fly, Lycoriella mali, a serious insect pest of mushroom cultivation in Japan, was analyzed for the presence of sex pheromones. Unmated male flies made copulatory responses, such as wing fanning, ventral bending of abdomen and opening of clasper, to an unmated female, crude extracts of an unmated female and separate body parts of an unmated female, suggesting the presence of female sex pheromones on all parts of female flies. However, unmated male flies did not make any copulatory responses to 10-4 to 10-11g of n-heptadecane, previously reported as a sex pheromone of the flies in the USA. Unmated females elicited copulatory responses from males when older than 2h after adult eclosion. Unmated males made copulatory responses to unmated females when older than 1h after adult eclosion. Unmated females elicited copulatory responses by males until 3 days after adult eclosion. On the other hand, 100% of unmated males showed copulatory responses even at 9 days after adult eclosion. The copulatory responses of unmated males to mated females decreased quickly after the female had mated once.
