Extraordinary Flux in Sex Ratio

摘要

The ratio of males to females within a species is central to many aspects of its biology, from mating frequency to population growth and disease spread. Forty years ago, Hamilton noted that the evolutionary amis race engaged between "selfish" sex-ratio distorters and counteracting suppressor genes has the potential to produce rapid flux in sex ratio. Here we document this process in action in a tropical butterfly and report a transition from 99% females to parity within 10 generations.