COURTSHIP IN THE WATER MITE NEUMANIA-PAPILLATOR - MALES CAPITALIZE ON FEMALE ADAPTATIONS FOR PREDATION

Courting male Neumania papillator vibrate their first and second pairs of legs when near a female. Females often respond to this vibration as they do to moving prey, by orienting to and clutching at trembling males; it is only after males have deposited spermatophores that females appear to recognize them as potential mates rather than prey. The hypothesis that male trembling elicits predatory responses from females was supported in several ways: (1) male leg-trembling frequencies fell within the range of vibrations produced by copepod prey; (2) females were unlikely to orient or clutch except in the presence of males or copepods; and (3) females deprived of food oriented to and clutched courting males significantly more often than did well fed females. Initial male recognition of females involves contact chemoreception; eliciting predatory responses from females may benefit the male by allowing him to differentiate between an actual female and her chemical trace on the substrate. The female's response to trembling may also allow males to manipulate her orientation to favour uptake of his spermatophores. Males did not appear to assess female quality during courtship. © 1991 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.