Sexual Behavior Maturation in Male Aedes Triseriatus (Diptera: Culicidae): A Re-Examination1

Sexual behavior of male Aedes triseriatus was studied in the laboratory during the last 2 hr of a l6-hr photophase for the first 5 days after emergence. During an artificial crepuscular period before scotophase, some males were able to erect antennal fibrillae, swarm, copulate, and inseminate I day after emergence. With increasing age, males displayed sexual behavior in progressively greater numbers and at progressively earlier times, extending into the precrepuscular period. Without a crepuscular period preceding scotophase, most male sexual behavior was delayed and suppressed. In young males successful copulation often did not result in insemination, but insemination success improved with increasing male age. A long sexual maturation time of males, reported by others, was apparently due to the absence of an evening crepuscular period and to the lack of precise age categories and differentiation between male and female maturation in their experiments.