Lateralisation is a well-established phenomenon observed in an increasing number of insect species. This study aims to obtain basic details on lateralisation in courtship and mating behaviour in Ostrinia furnacalis, the Asian corn borer. We conducted laboratory investigations to observe lateralisation in courtship and mating behaviours in adult O. furnacalis. Our goal was also to detect lateralised mating behaviour variations during sexual interactions and to elucidate how these variances might influence the mating success of males. Our findings reveal two distinct lateralised traits: male approaches from the right or left side of the female and the direction of male turning displays. Specifically, males approaching females from their right side predominantly exhibited left-biased 180° turning displays, while males approaching females from the left-side primarily displayed right-biased 180° turning displays. Notably, left-biased males, executing a 180° turn for end-to-end genital contact, initiated copulation with fewer attempts and began copulation earlier than their right-biased approaches with left-biased 180° turning displays. Furthermore, mating success was higher when males subsequently approached the right side of females during sexual encounters. Left-biased 180° turning males exhibited a higher number of successful mating interactions. These observations provide the first report on lateralisation in the reproductive behaviour of O. furnacalis under controlled laboratory conditions and hold promise for establishing reliable benchmarks for assessing and monitoring the quality of mass-produced individuals in pest control efforts.

Under current practices, broiler parent stock (broiler breeders) encounter several welfare problems, such as feed restriction and injury during mating. Intensive selection for production traits, especially growth rate, is associated with increased nutritious requirement and thus feed consumption, but also reproductive dysfunctions and decreased sexual activity in broiler breeders. A resulting serious welfare problem is the subsequent severe feed restriction which is applied during rearing, in order to prevent health problems and to achieve better egg production. This severe feed restriction has negative effects on bird welfare as it causes chronic stress resulting from hunger. Recent research has focused on management practices to alleviate the negative effect of this feed restriction. Using both a more fibrous feed and an appetite suppressant seems most successful. There are welfare concerns involved in the mating of broiler breeders. In many countries mutilations (beak trimming, despurring and toe clipping) are carried out in male broiler breeders as a standard procedure to prevent excessive damage to the hens during mating. It has been reported that broiler breeder males show low libido but, at the same time, may be aggressive and show rough behaviour during mating, which can cause severe injuries to the hens, although some injuries may be caused by over-mating hens. Current studies aim to develop management practices to reduce hen injury due to over-mating and improve the sexual behaviour in both males and females. In the last part of the review, an examination of how breeding companies are taking welfare into consideration in their commercial selection scheme is made. In practice, although for example reduced mortality and some health criteria are included in selection programs and some alternative breeds as used, other welfare issues remain, such as feed restriction during rearing.

For Gryllus bimaculatus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae), a comparison was made of the prediction from species recognition theory that stabilizing selection acts on mate recognition traits and that of sexual selection that predicts diversifying selection on mate recognition traits. The calling songs and morphometrics of four populations of field crickets from South Africa were compared. Song characteristics generally showed less between-population variation than did morphometric variation. This applied in particular to the song characteristics known to be important in species recognition. Within-population variation of species recognition traits were significantly smaller than for other call traits as well as morphometric traits. This is consistent with the expectation that stabilizing selection occurs for species recognition traits within populations as well as throughout their geographical ranges. No song traits correlated significantly with body size. Our study suggests that the calling song traits involved in mate recognition lack the variation required for sexual selection to operate. However, the amount of variation inherent in some of the other song parameters of field crickets still has the potential to give rise to sexual selection based on traits other than body size.

The idea that the size of animal populations may be regulated by factors intrinsic to them, such as behaviour, has a long history in ecology. Although this idea is now rejected as a general mechanism, it may apply in some species where females are damaged during courtship attempts, such as the Mediterranean tortoise Testudo hermanni. The sex ratios (adult males : adult females) of most dense Greek populations were more extreme (over 1.5:1) than could be accounted for by the earlier age at maturity of males, and some ranged to over 6:1. The sex ratio was correlated with the population density of adult males and the frequency of courtship attempts on females, and negatively correlated with the longevity of females. A high population density of males limits the density of adult females. This intrinsic regulation of population size is a consequence, rather than a goal, of a particular type of courtship behaviour (persistent thrusts by the male using a tail with a sharp terminal spur) in T. hermanni. Existing population densities at many Greek sites are probably unnaturally high, owing to the reduction of natural predators.

Observations on the reproductive behaviour of the armoured ground cricket, Acanthoplus speiseri Brancsik were made in the laboratory and field. In the field a male ready to mate attracted both receptive females and mature “silent males” by stridulating. A receptive female moved to the stridulating male and upon reaching it courtship begun. Silent males also moved towards the stridulating male, but stopped at a mean distance of 1.07 ± 0.14 m from him and either seduced females that passed their way to the stridulating male, to copulate with them, or joined the stridulating male singing. Chorusing of the calling song involving more than two males was not uncommon in both the field and laboratory.

Due to stiff competition for mates in the environmental chamber in the laboratory male A. speiseri combined acoustic and substrate signals to attract receptive females. The male ground crickets vibrated their appendages, while they stridulated. Substrate signalling through body/appendage vibration or tremulation is here being reported for the first time in the tettigoniid subfamily Hetrodinae, to which A. speiseri belongs. The courtship behaviour, orientations of members of a copulating pair relative to each other, copulation, spermatophore transfer from the male to the female during copulation and oviposition and postoviposition behaviours of the species are described. Finally, the differences in the reproductive behaviour of A. speiseri in the field and laboratory are discussed.