Function of Material Investment in Lepidoptera

该项目是正在进行的一项关于雄性帝王蝶(Danaus Plexippus)在交配过程中转移的大量物质捐赠或精囊功能的研究的一部分。因为在现在和未来的交配投资之间往往会有权衡，雄性在更多的资源上的投资超过了确保一次交配受精所需的资源，这是理论上的兴趣。两种可能的、但并不相互排斥的假设是该项目的重点。它们是精巢提供营养，供雌性在后代生产中使用(父亲的投资)，或者推迟雌性的交配，增加捐赠的雄性精子用于受精卵子的时间(交配努力)。对野生蝴蝶精子竞争和交配频率的研究将有助于估计雄性蝴蝶可供其后代使用的投资部分，以及从精原细胞的营养和延迟修复效应中获得的相对适合度。

This project is part of an ongoing study of the function of the large material donation or spermatophore transferred by male monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) during mating. Because there will often be a tradeoff between investment in present and future matings, investment by males in more resources than are necessary to ensure fertilization in a single mating is of theoretical interest. Two possible, but not mutually exclusive, hypotheses are the focus of the project. These are that the spermatophore provides nutrients to be used by the female in offspring production (paternal investment), or that it delays remating by the female, increasing the time during which the donating male's sperm are used to fertilize eggs (mating effort). Studies of sperm competition and mating frequencies of wild butterflies will allow estimation of the portion of a male's investment that is available to his own offspring, and relative fitness gains from the nutrient and delayed remating effects of spermatophores.***//