Can male harassment stabilise sex? Density matters!

What is it about?

Here we studied the evolution of sex in a population where females can choose between an asexual and a sexual reproductive life cycle and males can intimidate females into submitting to their mating attempts. We study the interaction of male sexual harassment and population density on the maintenance of sex. Males can go extinct in low density population, whereas facultative sex persists in a narrow range of slightly higher densities and at high densities we find completely sexual populations. This study provides an explanation for the rarity of facultative sex and also patterns of geographic parthenogenesis.

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