Nisquallia olympica mate guarding

Male Nisquallia exhibit mate guarding behavior, in which the male remains mounted on the female, even when mating is not going on. While mate guarding (and less often while mating), males actively rock from side to side, and hold their hind legs up. (5)

We also observed males leaning over as if to reach toward the females’ face. While we saw this behavior several times, the first video I got of this behavior doesn’t show what the male is doing. (That’s a plastic sun diffuser in the background.)
In 2011, I got a much better video (6), showing the male leaning down and wiggling his antennae as if to sample the air.

While photographing the mate guarding pair in imagbe 3, the female was approached by a Chalcid wasp, Brachymeria tegularis. This is a hyperparasitoid on grasshoppers by way of parasitic fly larvae. (Thanks to bugguide.net for the ID.)