TY  - JOUR
AB  - Recent studies suggest that sperm production and transfer may have significant costs to males. Male sperm investment into a current copulation may therefore influence resources available for future matings, which selects for male strategic mating investment. In addition, females may also benefit from actively or passively altering the number of sperm transferred by males. In the scorpionfly Panorpa cognata, the number of sperm transferred during copulation depended on copulation duration and males in good condition (residual weight) copulated longer and also transferred more sperm. Moreover, sperm transferred and stored per unit time was higher in copulations with females in good condition than in copulations with females in poor condition. Males varied greatly and consistently in their sperm transfer rate, indicative of costs associated with this trait. The duration of the pairing prelude also varied between males and correlated negatively with the male's sperm transfer rate, but no other male character correlated significantly with male sperm transfer rate. The results are consistent with strategic mating effort but sperm transfer could also be facilitated by the physical size of females and/or females in good condition may be more cooperative during sperm transfer.
DA  - 2003
DO  - 10.1046/j.1420-9101.2003.00613.x
KW  - copulation duration
KW  - strategic mating effort
KW  - post-copulatory sexual selection
KW  - sperm competition
KW  - Mecoptera
KW  - male choice
KW  - ejaculate size
KW  - cryptic mate choice
LA  - eng
IS  - 6
M2  - 1196
PY  - 2003
SN  - 1010-061X
SP  - 1196-1204
T2  - Journal of Evolutionary Biology
TI  - Determinants of sperm transfer in the scorpionfly Panorpa cognata: male variation, female condition and copulation duration
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-23957318
Y2  - 2024-11-22T05:53:32
ER  -