A new hypothesis for explaining the maintenance of the all‐female broods in the African butterfly Acraea encedon

Abstract

The African butterfly Acraea encedon contains a directly inherited all‐female strain. Several hypotheses have been proposed in order to explain the maintenance of the sex ratio polymorphism in this species, but so far none appears convincing. Here a new hypothesis for explaining the maintenance of the observed polymorphism is put forth: according to this hypothesis the polymorphism is maintained by density and frequency dependencies in demographic rates and in the success of obtaining a mate. Copyright © 1985, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved