of the guide portion 122.
The sensing member 120 is able, in the state where the bottom surface of its guide portion 122 is in contact with the top surface of the housing 101 and at least its front end portion is held between the housing 101 and the locking arm 103, to move back and forth between a standby position and a sensing position forward of the standby position. Thanks to this structure, a semi-mated state can be sensed by moving the sensing member during mating of the first and second parts.
Similarly, in Patent Publication Nos. WO2004/109866 and WO2004/095642, electrical connectors are set forth in which a locking arm possessing resilience is provided integrally with the top surface of the housing, locking protrusions are formed on the outeris complex, and the molding process is troublesome. Also, since the locking arm is molded integrally with the housing, the housing's outer dimensions are large, which means that the connector is large-size. Further, there are several other problems. One is that since the structure allows the sensing member to be inserted into the gap between the locking arm and the top surface of the housing even when the electrical connector is not mated together, and hence to be operated with the electrical connector in the unmated state, there is danger of erroneous operation. Another is that when the sensing member is inserted into the gap between the locking arm and the top surface of the housing in the unmated state, the CPA cannot be released without using a