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"Normally the individuals do live separately. They crawl on the
vegetable underground with no apparent relation to each other.
None
of their movements can be interpretated as social recognizing or
some kind of social interaction.
But from time to time this indifferent behaviour changes, in particular
but not only when the females undergo a moulting process and when eggs are
existing in the ovary.
Under those circumstances it was not rare to find a male close to
a female. When the male was separated from the female for about the distance
of a body length by means of a needle the male tried to come closer to
the female again. The male crawled around the female in a circular pathway
whereas the female didn't move much. Finally the male climbed on the back of the
female and touched its head with its mouth. The partners remained in this
position for some time. So we can suspect that the buccal gland might have
functions that are not known yet. The male continued by
... [we had to shorten this a little bit here, sorry ]
... and it must be assumed that mating was performed in this position."
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