Reproductive Behavior of the Lovebug, Plecia nearctica (Diptera: Bibionidae)

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Abstract
Most lovebug eclosion takes place at 6–9 pm and 8 am–12 pm EDT. Male-male competition for females is severe in lovebugs, and males most commonly wrestle for females around emergence areas. Females may fly into hovering swarms of males, or females may be grasped before they fly from emergence sites. Males may also couple with females by disrupting copulating pairs. Male size is positively correlated with copulatory success around emergence sites. Lovebugs copulate for a mean of 56 h in the laboratory. Females may copulate more than once and a 2nd copulation, which precludes oviposition after the 1st copulation, extends female longevity because females usually lay eggs and die after the 1st copulation. Maximal sperm transfer apparently requires only 12.5 hours. Prolonged copulation in lovebugs is apparently costly for males because they do little feeding while in copulation and because extended copulation reduces the number of copulations a male may secure.

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