Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 30, Issue 3, August 1982, Pages 790-793
Animal Behaviour

Behavioural shift from courtship solicitation to mate avoidance in female ringlet butterflies (Aphantopus hyperanthus) after copulation

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(82)80151-6Get rights and content

Abstract

In butterflies where nutrients contributed by males through mating are used by females for egg production and/or somatic maintenance, females may benefit from mating more than once. However, in species where sperm is used only for the fertilization of eggs and the sperm received in one copulation is sufficient for fertilization of all of the eggs, females should benefit from mating only once. In these species the reproductive success of females is likely to be proportional to the time they can allocate to egg-laying activities. Thus these females should be selected to minimize the time spent in an unmated condition, and to minimize time-consuming interactions, like courtship, with males after mating. As shown by spermatophore counts, females of the ringlet butterfly, Aphantopus hyperanthus, generally mate only once. These females exhibit behaviour consonant with the above view: they solicit courtship before copulation and actively avoid males after mating.

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