| Effects of Sucrose Intake on Spermatophore Mass Produced by Male Swallowtail Butterfly Papilio xuthus L (1999) | |||||||||||
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| A one-day old virgin male of the swallowtail butterfly, Papilio xuthus, requires about 50 min (at ca. 26.5°C) to transfer a spermatophore into the bursa copulatrix of a virgin female. Under such conditions, the spermatophore mass averages 4.7 mg, but is much smaller at the male's second mating (about a half). The energy stored during the larval stage is only enough to produce 1.5 spermatophores of the average size of the first mating. There is a positive correlation between adult male sugar intake and spermatophore mass at the second mating. To produce a spermatophore in a second mating that is the size typically produced by virgin males, a male must ingest 390 mg of sucrose solution (20%), which would take an estimated 4.3 days. If a large spermatophore is advantageous for mating, males are expected to have a period after mating when they feed but do not search for mates. | |||||||||||
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