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 52 mating compatibility DHJanzen100645.jpg high resolution
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| This very small free-ranging male Rothschildia lebeau is mating perfectly well with a normal-sized female. Her eggs will be as fertile (essentially 100%) as will be the eggs from a large moth mating. And note that she did not in fact reject him. In other words, his genitalia (hard sclerotized structures) are essentially the same size as are those of his better fed siblings. If they are reduced in size, it is by no means as much as was reduced his body weight (and even wing area). In other words, the developmental machine that is the moth does not allocate its scarce resources across all the different bodily functions - something that is no surprise to humans observing the tragic effects of starvation on children in regions of famine. | ||
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