ritual jousting by horned parisoschoenus expositus weevils (coleoptera, curculionidae, baridinae)仪式由角parisoschoenus比赛expositus象鼻虫(鞘翅目,象甲科,baridinae).pdfVIP

RITUAL JOUSTING BY HORNED PAMSOSCHOENUSEXPOSI- TUSWEEVILS (COLEOPTERA,CURCULIONIDAE, BARIDINAE) 2 BY WILLIAM G. EBERHARD AND J. MAURICIO GARCIA-C. 1Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and Escuela de Biologia, Universidad de Costa Rica, Ciudad Universitaria, Costa Rica; email: weberhar@cariari.ucr.ac.cr 2Apdo. 1179-2100, Guadalupe, San Jose, Costa Rica; email: mgarciac@solracsa.co.cr ABSTRACT Males of the weevil Parisoschoenus expositus use their prothoracic horns as weapons in stylized battles with other males over females that are drilling oviposition holes in palm leaves. The unusual sheath-like structures that penetrate deep into the male prothorax function to receive the horns of opponents during battles. Horn size is dimorphic with respect to body size, and small and large males also differ behav- iorally. Small males that have mated with a drilling female are some- times able to impede a large male’s access to the female until after she has oviposited, but they are not able to take over females from larger males. INTRODUCTION Beetle horns are extremely diverse in size and shape (e.g., Arrow 1951; Eberhard 1979). Despite occasional claims to the contrary (Moller 1992), observations oftheir use in natural contexts suggest that they function as weapons in battles between conspecifics (Mor6n 1976; Bechtle 1977; Eberhard 1977, 1979, 1981, 1987; Palmer 1978; Brown and Siegfried 1983; Otronen 1988; Connor 1988; Siva-Jothy 1989; Rasmussen 1994; Emlen 1994, 1997), rather than as visual display devices as do the horns and antlers of some ungulates (Geist 1966, 1978; Lincoln 1994). Three common functional designs have been documented among beetle horns: a dorso-ventrally mobile head horn which serves as a lever to lift the oppo