Long-Term Sperm Storage in a Superfetatious Live-Bearing Fish (<i>Poeciliopsis gracilis</i>, Poeciliidae).

ABSTRACT: Sperm storage is a post-copulatory strategy by which females can improve their fecundity by creating asynchrony between mating and fertilization. Sperm storage duration varies across vertebrate species, wherein longer sperm storage is thought to coincide with better reproductive success. Among the vertebrates, live-bearing fishes of the family Poeciliidae are generally assumed to store sperm for extended periods of time, but the temporal dynamics of this process remain unknown for most species. To date, research suggests that superfetatious poeciliids-which give birth to more frequent, temporally overlapping broods-may be able to store sperm longer than non-superfetatious species. However, robust empirical data for superfetatious poeciliids is very limited. Here, we assess the maximum dura

SUBMITTER: Ernst TR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12410990 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature