Sphingonotus (Sphingonotus) erythropterus Sjöstedt, 1920

(i) Pair Formation
Males usually achieve pair formation by observing and approaching moving females. The hindwings of this species are coloured bright orange and probably have a signal function. Species in several North American genera (Heliastus, Derot- rnema, and others) normally approach females by flying and flashing their brightly coloured wings.

(ii) Courtship
I observed two courtship sequences which were initiated when females, flying from me, alighted near males. Both males approached by walking and making short hops, and performed femur tipping and ordinary stridulation. The femora were tipped together or alternately. The insides of the femora are bright orange, causing tipping movements to be very conspicuous. Up- and downstrokes are equally rapid. Ordinary stridulation consists of bursts of 2-5 pulses with a repetition rate estimated roughly at 8 pulses per sec. As in North American Trimerotropis species, one femur was used to produce each burst, but the two femora alternated to some extent in producing successive bursts. S. coerulescens from Europe also possesses coloured wings and evidently lacks a crepitation display. S, savignyi, on the other hand, utilizes three methods of sound production: rubbing the femur against the forewing, rubbing the forewing against the hindwing, and wing crepitation.

(iii) Agonistic Behaviour
No agonistic behaviour was observed. S, coerulescens performs femur-tipping and femur-shaking movements in these contexts. [1]

References