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Female butterflies become more promiscuous when males are scarce mongabay.com February 5, 2007 "Male-killling bacteria are found in many insect species including the British ladybird. We wanted to know what the effect of the bacteria is on the mating system, and here we've shown that butterfly mating patterns are strongly determined by the killer bacteria." said Dr. Sylvain Charlat, a biologist from University College London and lead author of the study.
"It's amazing that the numbers of male butterflies can get so low and yet the population is still sustainable and stable. You don't need many male butterflies to continue the population successfully. This is partly because the decision to mate is mainly under female control and because males have a high mating capacity," added Dr. Greg Hurst, a co-author of the study and also a biologist from University College London. This study was conducted on Hypolimnas bolina butterflies in Pacific Island and southeast Asian populations. This article is based on a news release from University College London Comments? News options
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