Sperm competition and its evolutionary consequences in the insects

Abstract

Ashot on goal does not ensure victory*.Likewise, insemination does not guaranteepaternity. When females store sperm fromseveral males, each male’s fitness dependson his ability to tilt the ensuing fertilizationcontest (sperm competition) in his favour.How males achieve this goal was the mainfocus of study for 30 years. Recently,however, there have been more questionsabout how females influence spermcompetition (cryptic female choice). Toanswer them, we need to know why femalesmate multiply. What are the fitness benefitsand consequent selection on femalemorphology, physiology and behaviour? In spite of the newfound popularity ofcryptic female choice, driven largely byBillEberhard’s book [1] and more recentwork on sexual conflict, the available dataare still limited. It is testimony to Simmons’hard-nosed empiricism that he pays moreattention to questions from the traditional‘male perspective’.The best chapter in the 1998 collection