Postcopulatory guarding strategy in a finite mating period (Q1116919)

A simple model is presented for finding which male strategy is advantageous for fertilization of eggs, guarding a specific female, or searching for many females. The model assumes that there is a finite mating period in which the number of virgin females decreases temporally. When more than one male copulates with the same female, the last copulating male can displace a constant proportion of the sperm injected by the other males. Two oviposition patterns of females (single lump oviposition after the mating period and continuous oviposition through the period) are analyzed.