TY - JOUR T1 - Communication in the courtship of a madagascan hissing cockroach. I. Normal courtship JF - Animal Behaviour Y1 - 1984 A1 - Fraser, Jean A1 - Nelson, Margaret C. AB -

he hissing Madagascar cockroach, Gromphadorhina portentosa, has a prolonged and complex courtship involving signals in several sensory modalities. Courtship was described for 13 pairs of cockroaches and the frequencies and sequencing of 16 behavioural units were analysed. Particular attention was paid to the function and interactions of acoustic, chemical and tactile components. The results indicate that posturing and sound production by males, and antennation by both males and females, are important in courtship. They also suggest that courtship in G. portentosa, rather than depending on a rigid sequence of behaviour determined by a series of discrete releasers, is quite flexible, using ‘behavioural monologues’ by both sexes as a means of achieving transitions from one stage of courtship to the next.

VL - 32 UR - http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347284803371 IS - 1 JO - Animal Behaviour ER -