JJBS Volume 7, Number 3, September .2014 ISSN 1995-6673 Pages 211 - 215 Jordan Journal of Biological Sciences Mating Frequency, Duration and Time in Baluchistan Melon Fly Myiopardalis pardalina (Bigot) (Diptera: Tephritidae) Morteza Movahedi Fazel 1,* and Ali Mohammadipour 2 1 Department of Plant Protection, Agricultural College, ZanjanUniversity, Zanjan, 2 Department of Entomology, Institute of Plant Protection, Tehran,Iran Received: May 21, 2014 Revised: June 21, 2014 Accepted: July 4, 2014 Abstract Myiopardalis pardalina (Bigot) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is one of the injurious pests that damage melon fruits. The male sterility technique is one of the genetic methods that have been proposed for controlling fruit flies. This method is more effective in once-mated females. So mating frequency, starting time and mating duration by females and males of Baluchistan melon fly were studied in the laboratory (Department of Entomology, Institute of Plant Protection, Tehran, Iran). Mean number of matings/female was 5.83±0.48 during the 8 day test period. The presence or absence of the host did not have any significant influence on mating frequency. The mean number of matings/male was 6.26±0.45. Mating predominantly occurred in early afternoon. Mating duration in female and male series was 4.95±0.598 and 6.822±0.378 hours, respectively. The first mating usually took longer in comparison with other matings. Keywords: Mating frequency, Baluchistan melon fly, Myiopardalis pardalina, Mating duration, Mating time * Corresponding author. e-mail: movahedi@znu.ac.ir. 1. Introduction Insect reproduction involves two behaviors: mating and oviposition (Jimenez-Perez and Wang, 2003). In general, copulation is assumed to be costly for many reasons (Hunter et al., 1993). Females of many diverse animal species mate multiple times in nature (Andersson, 1994; Johnson and Burley, 1997). Such multiple mating is performed with different male partners as in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster (Fuerst et al., 1973). However, sometimes females remate with the same male partner (repeated mating) (Hunter et al., 1993). Repeated mating is only reported for a limited number of species (Petrie, 1992; Petrie et al., 1992; Hunter et al., 1993; Choe, 1995; Lens et al., 1997; Andrade and Mason, 2000). The frequency of mating in Tephritid fruit flies is an important aspect of their sexual behavior. It is relevant to the development of those pest control programs based in part on sexual interactions. For example, sex attractants developed for females may be more effective for species that remate frequently and may then repeatedly respond to male sex pheromone (Landolt, 1994). A multiple mating may increase the predation risks associated with searching for and mating with males, either because females have to search in risky areas(Koga et al., 1998) or because during mating vigilance and mobility are reduced (Jennions and Petrie, 2000). Females receiving multiple male contributions lay more eggs (Ridley, 1988) and often larger ones (Fox, 1993) than do once-mated females, indicating a large effect of male derived nutrients on females reproduction (Fox et al., 1995). A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the occurrence of multiple mating, and there is a general empirical support for these (reviewed in Petrie et al., 1992). In many insects, females are receptive for much of their adults' life and so mate more than once. However, the evolution of patterns of female receptivity leading to multiple mating in short-lived animals is something of a mystery because the cost to females of mating more than once (increased risk of predation, time lost from feeding and oviposition) usually appear to out weight the benefits (Thornhill and Alcock, 1983; Jennions, 1997). The potential or hypothesized benefits for females of multiple mating fall into two general classes: material benefits and/or genetic benefits (Reynolds, 1996). In general, material benefits enhance female fitness directly through increased numbers or size of eggs, whereas genetic benefits enhance female fitness indirectly through increased genetic quality of offspring (Zeh and Zeh, 1996). Material benefits may include nutritional resources from nuptial gift from males (Gwynne, 1997; Eberhard, 1996), a reduction in male harassment (Rubenstein, 1984; Arnqvist, 1989), and replenishment of sperms if one