Those few adults....

[Kenelm Philip]

> ...at any given time all phases in the metamorphosis are present in large
> numbers at the Bahia Honda area.  So there is no "bottleneck" in that
> situation.

Whether the stages are more or less synchronized (as they are in the north,
where most species are single-brooded), or unsynchronized as they are in
Florida--the number of adults at any one time (or summed over a long time)
is only a small fraction of the total number of individuals in the popu-
lation at that time, or summed over the same interval.

	Therefore, the genetic diversity of the adults is much smaller than
the diversity in the entire population (all stages). And the entire popu-
lation has to pass through this diversity bottleneck. So the adults are
critical, at least for that aspect of things.

	This does not hold for organisms (like humans) where a large propor-
tion of offspring attain sexual maturity.

							Ken Philip




 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl