Hymenopteran females are mostly highly selective, choosing their mating partner according to male quality signals, and may also signal their fertility through chemical advertisement. Male insects, in turn, often display a complex set of courtship behaviors to allure females to mate. In this study we explored the mechanisms triggering courtship behaviors in the oligolectic bee Heriades truncorum. In this species, males perform wing fanning followed by a sideways rocking motion before copulation. We tested the role of chemical cues in partner recognition by exposing males to dead females washed from cuticular extracts (i.e., sex pheromones) that were posteriorly coated, or not, with an extract of unmated females. Additionally, we experimentally reduced male wing length to test whether wing fanning was responsible for triggering sideways rocking motions. We found males to interact more often with females coated by extracts from unmated females, and to display wing fanning in the presence of these pheromones. Male wing fanning was important to perform sideways rocking motions, which are an essential behavior for successful mating and possibly an element used by females to evaluate male quality. Our study shows that both chemical and mechanical signals from female and male bees, respectively, are important elements in the mating system of H. truncorum.

膜翅目雌性大多具有高度选择性，根据雄性质量信号选择它们的交配伙伴，并且还可能通过化学广告来表明它们的生育能力。反过来，雄性昆虫通常会表现出一系列复杂的求爱行为来吸引雌性昆虫交配。在这项研究中，我们探索了触发寡聚蜂Heriades trunco​​rum求偶行为的机制. 在这个物种中，雄性在交配前先展开翅膀，然后进行侧向摇摆运动。我们测试了化学线索在伴侣识别中的作用，方法是将雄性暴露于从表皮提取物（即性信息素）中清洗的死雌性，这些提取物在后部涂有或未涂有未交配雌性的提取物。此外，我们通过实验减少了雄性翅膀的长度，以测试翅膀扇形是否是引发侧向摇摆运动的原因。我们发现雄性更频繁地与被未交配雌性提取物包裹的雌性互动，并在这些信息素存在的情况下展翅。雄性展翅对于进行侧向摇摆运动很重要，这是成功交配的基本行为，也可能是雌性用来评估雄性质量的一个因素。H. trunco​​rum。