Post-mating sexual abstinence in a male moth

Abstract

In most animals, male copulation is dependent on the detection and processing of female-produced sex pheromones. In males, a refractory post-ejaculatory interval (PEI) follows copulation, allowing them to avoid direct remating until they have replenished their reproductive tracts. In the moth Agrotis ipsilon, newly-mated males show a transient inhibition of behavioral and central nervous responses to sex pheromone. Using non-pheromonal (plant) odours, pheromones, and their mixture, we now show that the observed lack of pheromone response originates from differential post-mating odour processing in the brain. Although mated males still respond to plant odors alone, their response to mixtures depends on the added pheromone concentration. Below a specific threshold, sex pheromone is not detected at the brain level; above this threshold, it becomes inhibitory. This PEI can thus be interpreted as a « refusal to respond », which contradicts the generally accepted paradigm of sleep-like/exhaustion behaviour during PEI.