Abstract
Males of the agaristid moth Hecatesia thyridiondefend small patches of coastal heathland in southwestern Australia in the late afternoon. As they fly back and forth low over their territories, they produce an acoustical signal. Neighboring males commonly fly toward each other; these interactions often result in aerial duels, with the eventual departure of one of the males. Playback experiments established that males were attracted to the sounds of other males. Females were observed to fly into territories and eventually mate with the signaling occupant. Marked males sometimes returned to the same spot on consecutive days. On any given day males occupied only a fraction of the sites that were acceptable territories. The mating system of H. thyridionappears to be a dispersed lek, with males acoustically advertising territories that are used for mating and not for feeding or oviposition.
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Alcock, J., Gwynne, D.T. & Dadour, I.R. Acoustic signaling, territoriality, and mating in whistling moths,Hecatesia thyridion (Agaristidae). J Insect Behav 2, 27–37 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01053616
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01053616