Coercive Copulation in the Alpine Bushcricket Anonconotus alpinus Yersin (Tettigoniidae: Tettigoniinae: Platycleidini)

Abstract

Sexual coercion in the form of forced copulation is widespread in the animal kingdom and has been documented in several insect taxa. In crickets and bushcrickets (sub‐order Ensifera), however, mating typically involves luring acts as opposed to forcing acts. The mating behaviour of the tettigoniid Anonconotus alpinus Yersin, which is described in this paper, appears to be unique amongst the Tettigoniidae (and possibly amongst the Ensifera) in that it is coercive, involving forced matings. Males did not stridulate immediately prior to mating but instead leapt on passing females, using their anal cerci as pincers to maintain a hold on the female's abdomen (which was sometimes damaged in the process). Males appeared to lack a sexual refractory period and attempted to copulate again as little as 18 s following the previous mating.

Correlated evolutionary changes in Drosophila female genitalia reduce the possible infection risk caused by male copulatory wounding

“…Growing evidence shows the importance of another type of sex-related selection, sexual conflict, as a compelling force of antagonistic coevolution between male and female sexual characters (sexually antagonistic coevolution or SAC; Hosken and Stockley 2004;Arnqvist and Rowe 2005;Eberhard 2010). Usually, males try to mate at a higher frequency than females, and their genitalia are often used as a device for coercive matings with unwilling females (e.g., Arnqvist and Rowe 2002;Vahed 2002). If sexually antagonistic coevolutionary processes result in correlated structures between male (offensive) and female (defensive) genitalia, the resultant match in genital morphologies may mask harmfulness of the male offensive trait.…”

Sexual coercion does not exclude luring behavior in the climbing camel-spider Oltacola chacoensis (Arachnida, Solifugae, Ammotrechidae)

“…In the context of the later hypothesis, sexual coercion in the form of forced copulation (Smuts and Smuts 1993;Clutton-Brock and Parker 1995) has been documented in many taxa, including some groups of insects (for reviews, see Thornhill and Alcock 1983;Choe and Crespi 1997;Vahed 2002). Although sexual coercion is associated with existence of sexually antagonistic coevolution, its mere presence does not necessarily imply that this type of coevolution occurs (Pizzari and Snook 2003).…”

Cryptic Female Choice in Crickets and Relatives (Orthoptera: Ensifera)

“…In a few species, pair formation and copulation appear to be coercive (e.g. Vahed 2002;Mello 2007;Vahed and Carron 2008;Haley and Gray 2012). In Alpine bushcrickets (Tettigoniidae; Anonconotus spp.…”

“…), for example, the male silently "stalks" the female and then leaps on her, using sharply pointed, pincerlike cerci to maintain hold of the female. The tips of the cerci grip the cuticle of the sides of the female's abdomen, causing visible wounds (Vahed 2002;Vahed and Carron 2008).…”

“…This suggests that resistance by females results from intersexual conflict over the duration of ejaculate transfer in these tettigoniids (Vahed et al 2014), although it does not rule out the possibility that resistance might act as a form of mate screening (Eberhard 1996). If this was the case, however, it is not clear why resistance generally occurred only following spermatophore transfer (with some exceptions, see Vahed 2002) and did not generally occur during prolonged copulation prior to spermatophore transfer.…”