Copulation reduces the duration of death-feigning behaviour in the sweetpotato weevil, Cylas formicarius

Although there have been numerous studies on the effects of mating history on mating behaviour, few studies have reported the relationship between mating history and other contextual behaviours such as foraging and predator avoidance. We examined the effect of mating history on death-feigning behaviour (an antipredator behaviour) in the sweetpotato weevil. Because mating behaviour can be divided into phases, we examined the effects of encounters with the opposite sex, copulation and insemination success on death-feigning behaviour. For females after copulation and males after multiple copulations the duration of death-feigning behaviour was reduced, whereas encounters with the opposite sex had no effect. Insemination success did not affect the duration of death feigning in males, but inseminated females reduced the duration of death feigning. We discuss the implications of these results for the effect of mating history on this antipredator behaviour.