WITH SELECTION FOR FECUNDITY THE MEAN FITNESS DOES NOT NECESSARILY INCREASE

Edward Pollak ¹

¹ Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011

A population with two alleles at one locus is considered. It is assumed that there is random mating of adults and that matings in which a particular pair of genotypes is involved may have a different mean number of offspring, or fecundity, than other types of matings. There is assumed to be no other selection. It is shown that the genotypic frequencies that maximize the mean fecundity of the population are not necessarily the same as the stable equilibrium frequencies. Thus, examples can be found for which the mean fecundity decreases from one generation to the next, and one such example is presented. An example in which there is no stable equilibrium, and the mean fecundity oscillates, is also given.