Effects of sex and mating status on who initiates contact in the parasitoid wasp Spalangia endius (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

In species without obvious aggression, individuals may still vary in how likely they are to initiate contact with a conspecific. In the parasitoid wasp Spalangia endius, who was more likely to initiate contact during pair wise interactions depended on sex and mating status. Specifically, more contacts between the sexes were initiated by the male than by the female both when the female was still virgin and when the female had already mated with a different male. After a male mated with a given female, he still sometimes initiated contacts with her, but no longer more often than she did. A male was more likely to initiate contact when he was with a female than when he was with another male, and he was more likely to retreat from a mated female than from a male.