One puzzling aspect about the courtship behaviour of insects is its sporadic nature. Most insects should exhibit behaviour involving approach, identification, and copulation. Yet, whereas male fruit flies (Drosophila) often have elaborate displays preceding copulation, male houseflies and blowflies (Musca) simply fly at any object of the proper size and attempt to copulate with it. The reason for these differences in behaviour may be that some insects do not require courtship. Males of some butterflies and moths, for example, simply wait by the pupa and copulate with the female immediately after she emerges.

It is more likely, however, that the majority of insects have fairly elaborate displays, but man is unable to sense them. The pheromones are, in fact, rather elaborate displays used as sex attractants by many insects; such sensory mechanisms are not usually perceived by man. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the reproductive behaviour of some butterfly species depends heavily on visual clues; similar experiments with other species have failed to show such behaviour. It must be realized, however, that insect vision is quite different from that of vertebrates. Most insects have vision that is sensitive to ultraviolet light, which man and the other vertebrates cannot normally perceive. Butterflies may appear to have identical wing colour patterns under normal light, but, when viewed under ultraviolet light, the patterns differ drastically. Thus, insects that mimic each other in order to appear identical to a vertebrate predator actually possess an unbreakable code by which each species is able to distinguish its own kind.

A reproductive behaviour that is usually misunderstood by those who have observed it is the copulation process in dragonflies. The actual copulatory organ of the male is located close to the thorax, not, as in most insects, near the tip of the abdomen. After a male alights on a plant and transfers sperm from the terminal genital opening to the copulatory organ, he seeks out a female and grasps her behind the head with claspers on his abdomen. Although the two fly in a tandem position, actual copulation occurs only when they alight, and the female bends her abdomen to receive the sperm from the male’s organ. Colour, pattern, and movement are important in species recognition. In experiments, it has been found that artificial models acceptable to male Platycnemis dragonflies must consist of a female head, thorax, and one wing; the model also must be moved from side to side about once every four seconds to be effective. Complete aerial mating in insects is rare, but it does occur in mayflies, houseflies, ants, wasps, and bees.

Among the cicadas, crickets, and some grasshoppers, females normally mate after they have been attracted to a male by vocalizations of the latter, which, in most cases, are species specific. It has been demonstrated that deafened female grasshoppers do not permit copulation. In many crickets, the specific stridulations (noises) that occur after each copulation keep the female near the male until he is ready to produce another spermatophore. These stridulations also prevent the female from removing the spermatophores before insemination has been completed.

Even some butterflies incorporate sounds into their reproductive displays; in some manner, the butterfly Ageronia makes a loud cracking sound when engaged in courtship. Many other insects may incorporate sound into their reproductive displays, perhaps utilizing sounds beyond the sensitivity of the human ear.

Research has revealed that olfactory displays are widespread in insects. The sex attractants for this purpose are usually volatile pheromones. Among certain species of butterflies, such as the queen butterfly (Danaus gilippus), the males possess “hair pencils” that project from the end of the abdomen and emit a scent when swept over the female’s antennae during courtship behaviour. Copulation does not occur in the absence of this chemical display.

During some stage of their development, a number of insects are either external or internal parasites on a wide variety of animals, including other insects. A particularly bizarre pattern is found in the stylopids, which belong to the order Strepsiptera. Though seldom seen, these insects may be common internal parasites of wasps and bees. The abdomen of the adult females, which never leave their hosts, consists of a bag of eggs that is concealed in the host. The forepart of the parasite, which projects from between abdominal segments of the host, is usually concealed by the host’s wings. The females of one stylopid group are apparently unique among animals in having two genital openings—both in the head—in the form of membranous windows. The larvae emerge through these openings, crawl onto a plant, and seek another host. When the host molts its old cuticle (hard skin), the larvae penetrate the soft body. Females extend their heads through the host’s abdomen and mature within the host. The males, however, leave the host, pupate in the host’s cast-off cuticle, and emerge several days later as adults. The male stylopid then seeks out a host insect and taps it on the side of the abdomen. If no female is present, the male leaves; if a female is present, she somehow signals her presence. The male then inserts his abdomen under the host’s wing and enters the genital window of the female.

It is in the orders Isoptera (termites) and Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants), however, that the reproductive behaviour of insects attains its highest level of sophistication. Although dung beetles and some other insect species brood their eggs and care for the young, extreme insect sociality, with its peculiar brood-care system, is found only among the isopterans and the hymenopterans. The principal criterion for such behaviour would appear to be that the female must remain with her brood until after they begin to hatch. Although the phenomenon has been intensively studied, the explanation for the evolution of extreme brood care in ants, many wasps and bees, and termites remains one of the more challenging problems in biology.

Most colonies of social insects reproduce in two ways: either sexual individuals are produced that mate and start new colonies, or the colony breaks up after reaching a certain size. Some species reproduce in both ways. In the first case, the chances of finding new sites are maximized by providing as many individuals of different sexes as possible, each equipped with appropriate guidance mechanisms. In the second, members of the parent colony explore the environment and establish a new colony where suitable.

Another example of reproduction in social insects is that practiced by many ants. Most larvae in an ant colony develop into wingless, sterile workers. Some, however, may get more food (a point that is controversial) and grow more rapidly. These do not pupate when the other larvae do; instead, they become king-sized individuals that eventually metamorphose into sexually mature males or females with wings. Their sex, like that of the wasps and bees, depends upon whether or not the egg was fertilized by the queen.

The winged sexual forms, or alates, are produced at certain times during the year and swarm in mating flights to establish a new colony, which may actually be no more than a few hundred feet from the old colony. Actual copulation may occur either during flight or after landing on a surface. For most species of ants, it is not known whether a male will copulate with more than one female or if a female will copulate with more than one male. After copulation, the female seeks a location for a new nest and loses her wings within three to five days. Generally, two months are required to rear the first daughter workers. Some females carry a live mealybug with them on the mating flight and take it to the new colony site, where the mealybug’s offspring provide the honeydew to feed the ant’s initial offspring. Generally, however, the female ant does not provide food for her first offspring; instead, the larvae eat many of the first 100 or so eggs. This egg cannibalism decreases when there are sufficient workers to feed the larvae.