Males and Mating
Male obscure mealybugs do not feed, and have very short lifespans (2–3 days); males will spin cocoons shortly after hatching, where they develop wings. Upon emerging from their cocoons, male obscure mealybugs will fly toward the scent of the female's sex pheromone, mate as many times as possible, then die. Given the male's short lifespan, the timing of the female's emission of sex pheromone is crucial; females will emit the pheromone day and night around the time of male emergence (especially in the spring), then cease immediately after fertilization. Obscure mealybugs generally mate at dusk and at dawn.
The female obscure mealybug sex pheromone has the unfortunate property of sometimes attracting parasitic wasps (such as Tetracnemoidea peregrina), and is therefore a kairomone.
Read more about this topic: Pseudococcus Viburni, Life Cycle
Famous quotes containing the words males and/or mating:
“If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections.... Males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.”
—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
“The far-off clinching and mating of arches, the leap and thrust of the stone, carrying a great roof overhead, awed and silenced her.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)