Communication between males and females in flies of the biting midge family (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

Abstract

Intersexual communication and mating in the family of biting midges is highly diverse. In most species, excited males with a strongly developed Johnston’s organ form swarms and mate with females that enter the swarms. In this group, the male flagellum has a well-developed plume of long setae and acts as a directional collective antenna detecting vibrational signals produced by the females’ wings. In many parasitic biting midges, males use their chemoreceptors to locate the hosts of females (vertebrates and insects) and mate there while the females are feeding on blood or haemolymph. Similarly, males and females visit flowers where both sexes feed on nectar and mate, albeit without swarming. Some predatory biting midges communicate exclusively by means of sex pheromones. In this group, females of some fossil species developed special wing organs to enhance pheromone dispersal (Eohelea, Gedanohelea, Camptopterohelea). Finally, there is quite a large group of predatory biting midges, in which females hunt for the smaller males, which they then consume during copulation.