雌性延迟发育的蚜虫的性别分配(英文)

Sex allocation in aphids with delayed sexual females

某些物种的蚜虫中,雌性个体成熟较晚,可以认为是雄性个体的“侄女”。当冬季即将来临,剩余时间就不能满足发育需求时,发育延迟了,发育延迟应当也终止了雌性功能上的投资。然而,最近的证明表明,雌性功能的投资并不停止。这种未预料到的发现可能归因于一种进化限制因素,归因于雄性个体在不同年龄阶段对配偶的竞争,或归因于不能预测导致随机非遗传多型性的最后期限。本文讨论了这三种可能性,最后一种可能性由于暂时性地解释了雌性功能中的连续投资而是一种可取的解释。尽管延缓发育和开始繁殖的最后期限常见于那些生活在严寒地区的、雌性发育迟缓的蚜虫,本文的观点也适合于一个性别成熟较晚的、具有繁殖最后期限的任何一个蚜虫物种。

In some aphid species, sexual females can be considered as the nieces of males and they mature later. This delay should stop investment in the female sexual function, when the time remaining to winter no longer suffices for its development anymore. Current evidence, however, shows that investment in the female sexual function never ceases. This unexpected finding could be attributable to an evolutionary constraint, to temporal mate competition between males of different age, or to the unpredictability of the deadline leading to ＇ adaptive coin-flipping＇. All three possibilities are discussed and the last is favoured as a tentative explanation for the continuous investment in the female, sexual function. Whereas a delay-and-deadline situation is most obviously present in aphids with delayed sexual females living in regions with harsh winters, the arguments apply wherever one sex matures later and a deadline for reproduction exists .