Posted by Rui Andrade on 05-05-2008 20:57
#77
Today I finally saw the beginning of a mating of Tachydromia:).
I've decided to fallow a male to see if I found anything new. After a few minutes, I saw him catching a small dipteran, and some more later a female approached and mating began at an amazing speed. I wasn't even able to tell who made the first move:o. When I finally made sense of what was going on, the female was feeding off the male's prey (did the male give it voluntarily, or did the female stole it?).
Unfortunately I couldn't manage to film the scene, it was too quick:(.

1- male feeding before the mating

2- mating (female with prey)
Another intresting thing happened before the mating. While the male was feeding, a spider tried to attack him. As a response, the male repeatedly lifted his abdomen trying to intimidate his opponent, and succeeded:). I only got to take one sloppy photo of this behaviour.

3- defensive behaviour

4- during the hottest part of the day, a female takes cover from the heat thanks to the vegetation
.