The maintenance of polymorphism owing to differences in developmental time and competition.

Abstract

The effect of developmental time on the maintenance of an enzyme polymorphism is analyzed under the assumption that competition exists for a reproductively essential resource. Specifically, in laboratory vials Drosophila compete for oviposition and pupation sites. This system of competition serves as a prototype for the model with late-eclosing individuals being excluded from the reproductive pool. Two mating behaviors are modelled: (i) mating is with individuals from only the same cohort group and occurs only once, and (ii) mating is with all individuals that have eclosed up to that time and occurs daily. Numerical analyses are done on both mating structures using data from Drosophila mercatorum. The simulations show that mating structure and initial conditions do not affect the equilibrium genotype frequencies, but that slight changes in the level of competition can dramatically alter the equilibrium values.