Function of Material Investment in Lepidoptera

本项目是一项正在进行的研究雄性帝王蝶（Danaus plexippus）在交配过程中大量物质捐赠或精子包囊转移功能的一部分。由于在当前和未来交配的投资之间经常存在权衡，因此雄性在确保单次交配中受精所需的更多资源上的投资在理论上是有意义的。两种可能但并非相互排斥的假设是该项目的重点。其中一种解释是，精子包囊为雌性提供了繁殖后代所需的营养物质（父系投资），另一种解释是，精子包囊延迟了雌性的交配时间，增加了雄性精子用于使卵子受精的时间（交配努力）。对野生蝴蝶的精子竞争和交配频率的研究将有助于估计雄性可用于其后代的投资的部分，以及从精子团的营养和延迟的残余效应中获得的相对适应性收益

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.***//