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Survivorship And Growth Of Sexually And Asexually Derived Larvae Of Alsophila Pometaria (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), Lawrence G. Harshman, Douglas J. Futuyma

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

A substantial body of theory is devoted to understanding the relative advantages of sexual and asexual reproduction. It is generally understood that asexual forms potentially have a higher rate of reproduction because they save the cost of producing males. The micro-evolutionary consequences of sexual and asexual reproduction are less clear. Sexual reproduction generates abundant genotypic diversity which may be adaptively advantageous (Williams 1975; Maynard Smith 1978). Asexual reproduction may perpetuate combinations of genes that are co-adapted (Templeton 1979), heterotic (Suomalainen et al. 1976; White 1979), or specialized (Vrijenhoek 1979, 1984). Thus, it is possible that the fitness of a sexual …