Open AccessA new hypothesis for explaining the maintenance of the all‐female broods in the African butterfly Acraea encedon
Author(s) -
STENSETH NILS CHR.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
hereditas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1601-5223
pISSN - 0018-0661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1601-5223.1985.tb00503.x
Subject(s) - biology , butterfly , polymorphism (computer science) , evolutionary biology , zoology , genetics , ecology , genotype , gene
The African butterfly Acraea encedon contains a directly inherited all‐female strain. Several hypotheses have been proposed in order to explain the maintenance of the sex ratio polymorphism in this species, but so far none appears convincing. Here a new hypothesis for explaining the maintenance of the observed polymorphism is put forth: according to this hypothesis the polymorphism is maintained by density and frequency dependencies in demographic rates and in the success of obtaining a mate.