BRN 9-3 - Flipbook - Page 40
28. This image illustrates tandem linkage and mating
wheel formation while perched on a dense patch of
Bermudagrass adjacent to the Lower Mogollon Trail
(November 28, 2025).
(Ed. In a sequence of photographs, which unfortunately had
very busy backgrounds and could not be reproduced in this
article, Jim described a mating sequence, as follows:)
The male captured a female to create a tandem linkage, ßew
her to the top of a dense patch of Bermudagrass (~0.5m
high), then drew her upward, by arcing his abdomen tip, to
begin formation of a mating wheel. The female joined in
the mating wheel by placing her S8 segment over his S2
segment and began fertilizing her eggs. After several
minutes in the mating wheel, she released from copulation
and relaxed into vertical tandem linkage. The male again
pulled her upward to reattach and reform the mating wheel
conÞguration. And she again elevated her abdomen to
reattach the S8 to S2 connection. Then they continued
copulation for several more minutes; note how this 2nd
mating wheel orientation allowed a clear view of lateral
male and female morphological features (image 28).
After a few more minutes, the pair completed copulation,
reformed the tandem linkage conÞguration, then ßew
~10m through dense tamarisk canopies (likely to oviposit
into coyote willow, Baccharis, and/or tamarisk branches
overhanging a large pool along the Rio Grande bank).
28
26
27
Mating
Two mating events were observed and photo-documented
along the Rio Grande in the 2025 Þeld season, one each
west of Mesilla and along the Lower Mogollon Trail at
Leasburg Dam State Park.
39
