TY  - JOUR
AB  - Sperm competition theory predicts that when males are certain of sperm competition, they should decrease sperm investment in matings with an increasing number of competing ejaculates. How males should allocate sperm when competing with differently sized ejaculates, however, has not yet been examined. Here, we report the outcomes of two models assuming variation in males' sperm reserves and males being faced with different amounts of competing sperm. In the first 'spawning model', two males compete instantaneously and both are able to assess the sperm competitive ability of each other. In the second 'sperm storage model', males are sequentially confronted with situations involving different levels of sperm competition, for instance different amounts of sperm already stored by the female mating partner. In both of the models, we found that optimal sperm allocation will strongly depend on the size of the male's sperm reserve. Males should always invest maximally in competition with other males that are equally strong competitors. That is, for males with small sperm reserves, our model predicts a negative correlation between sperm allocation and sperm competition intensity, whereas for males with large sperm reserves, this correlation is predicted to be positive.
DA  - 2007
DO  - 10.1098/rspb.2006.3722
KW  - genetic algorithm
KW  - ejaculate size
KW  - sperm competition
KW  - sexual selection
KW  - sneaker
KW  - strategic sperm allocation
KW  - intensity
LA  - eng
IS  - 1607
M2  - 209
PY  - 2007
SN  - 0962-8452
SP  - 209-217
T2  - Proceedings of the Royal Society B
TI  - Sperm competition games: optimal sperm allocation in response to the size of competing ejaculates
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-15965489
Y2  - 2024-11-22T03:57:38
ER  -