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Fake sperm fool female butterflies
A butterfly's infertile sperm may serve to bulk up the contents of a female's storage organ and thus discourage remating.
References:
Cook, P.A. 1999. Non-fertile sperm delay female remating. Nature 397(Feb. 11):486.
Snook, R.R. 1998. The risk of sperm competition and the evolution of sperm heteromorphism. Animal Behaviour 56(December):1497.
Further Readings:
Baker, R. Sperm Wars. Available at http://www.newscientist.com/sciencebooks/reviews/spermwars.html.
Bellis, M.A., R.R. Baker, and M.J.G. Gage. 1990. Variation in rat ejaculates consistent with the kamikaze-sperm hypothesis. Journal of Mammalogy 71:479.
Parker, G.A. 1970. Sperm competition and its evolutionary consequences in the insects. Biological Review 45:525.
Silberglied, H.E., J.G. Shepherd, and J.L. Dickinson. 1984. American Naturalist 123:255.
Travis, J. 1997. Male flies help the females to bank sperm. Science News 152(July 12):22.
Sources:
Penny A. Cook
John Moores University
School of Health
79 Tithebarn Street
Liverpool L2 2ER
United Kingdom
Rhonda Snook
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Department of Biological Sciences
4505 South Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, NV 89154-4004
From Science News, Vol. 155, No. 7, February 13, 1999, p. 100. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.
