[HELICONIUS] female remating rates & spermatophore counts?

[Jamie Walters]

Hello all,

I am writing to request data and useful information/anecdotes from the
Heliconius community at large regarding estimates of female remating rates.
I am particularly interested in counts of spermatophores from wild-caught
females.  However, I would welcome any type of data available that speaks to
the amount of female remating that occurs in any Heliconius species.  

Based on my reading and conversations with others, it seems to me like there
have been few systematic attempts to estimate the extent of female remating
in Heliconius, particularly in natural settings.   Nonetheless, I also have
the sense that many folks have collected at least some data on this topic
which may never have been published.  For instance, the PhD theses of Carol
Boggs and Adam Boyko have very relevant data based on behavioral
observations.

On a related note, I would be curious to have more information about the
degredation of spermatophores in pupal-mating females.  The only systematic
information I've found about this phenomenon is again in Carol's thesis and
her related 1981 Evolution paper.

I would like to gather together as much of this disparate information as
possible to synthesize it into a comprehensive perspective on female
remating in Heliconius.  If you have data like this and would be willing to
share it, or could point me to references that contain such data, I would
greatly appreciate it.  Moreover, if anyone is going to be spending time in
the field and would be interested in collecting this type of data please let
me know -- it would be great to coordinate efforts.

Thanks very much,

Jamie