Enough IS Enough! Angry Soldier Beetle Female

It is high time for the soldier beetles and they are everywhere! Flattering dizzily from one grass blade to another or crawling around on the thistles. Wherever you look, you see these beetles doing what nature requires for their survival, they reproduce.
Until today I never actually spent much thought on the mating behaviour of bugs and beetles. I guessed it was a pretty straight forward 'come first served first' matter. The dock bettles certainly don't seem to care and I have even seen a dock beetle attempting to mate with a ladybird. See the special page here on this blog - menu to the right.

But today I was witness to something very ... hmmm ... not sure if I can call it odd, it's nature afterall so it is only odd to us humans. I noticed a lot of movement out of the corner of my eye and as I went to investigate, I found two soldier beetles having what seems to be some kind of a fight. Upon closer inspection, I realised that they were actually mating. However, the female didn't seem to be happy with it at all! 

This is how I found the pair ... her wriggling and twisting her body, trying to escape ... jaws wide open, ready to attack.

He had a difficult time holding on to her ... she wasn't a willing mate!

 

She nearly got free for a short moment but I am quite sure that would have been the death of both ... being still united.

 

Her constant struggles make them both loose grip and balance and they fall sideways onto the thistle leaf. She is desparately trying to claw herself away from his grip ...

 ... then she manages to get back up and still furiously tries to get away!

 

As she is trying to snap at him her body twists and to stop her, he grabs hold of her even more and holds her down by her thorax. (part between head and body)

But he caught himself a feisty mate and she is not giving in! She partly manages to struggle free ... and then both fall to the ground ... and I could no longer see them. I stepped away of course so as not to step on the two by accident.

I wonder how this ended ....



With this event I have become curious: do some insects choose a suitable partner? I am quite sure some don't care. There has been some research on these soldier beetles and the thought that they may use assortative mating. Meaning that like likes like. Same size, same strenght ... etc etc.

Not sure what she was unhappy about, he looks like a big strong beetle ...

I shall make some inquiries and I hope to be able to report back my findings.

*** added 15th June 2016***

Having had some conversation on forums it appears that the female may have mated already and isn't  wanting to mate again, hence her anger. Clearly, the male is ignoring this.  I am still quite surprised by this, thinking that nature would be more 'clear' about things.

***

 
 Below some less 'wild' examples of soldier beetles mating ... albeit they do have some imagination ... ;)

This position I have seen quite a few times ... its more of a trapez act than a reproductive act ... looks pretty realxed to me ... dangling in the breeze. What often makes me laugh out loud is that the males seem to casually have their arms crossed ... its not all that interesting is it ... !

The female in many cases wanders about looking for food while quite happily carrying her 'burden' with her.

I will set up a special page for these soldier beetles, they are a fascinating bunch and have the most expressive little faces.