Spreading the genes - importance beyond life and death

[Cyperium]

Reproduction seems not to be as simple as I first thought, first of all we have the sexual act, but then it is a struggle that the female doesn't mate again.

A spider can even take suicide in order to keep the female spider busy while he is pumping his sperm (so that the female eats him), another insect covers his sperm in honey (or something simliar) so that the female eats it and thus keeps her mind off mating.

So it isn't just the struggle of mating, it's the struggle of being the definite father.

So the question I have is, what evolutionary advantage does this have? Why isn't it enough to reproduce, why is it of such importance that ones own genes get's to continue? From the insect view that is, or the evolutionary view.

 

[dixonmassey]

Reproduction seems not to be as simple as I first thought, first of all we have the sexual act, but then it is a struggle that the female doesn't mate again.

A spider can even take suicide in order to keep the female spider busy while he is pumping his sperm (so that the female eats him), another insect covers his sperm in honey (or something simliar) so that the female eats it and thus keeps her mind off mating.

So it isn't just the struggle of mating, it's the struggle of being the definite father.

So the question I have is, what evolutionary advantage does this have? Why isn't it enough to reproduce, why is it of such importance that ones own genes get's to continue? From the insect view that is, or the evolutionary view.

How "survival of the fittest" whould've been possible without such a concern?

 

[Cyperium]

How "survival of the fittest" whould've been possible without such a concern?

Why is it a concern for them that their genes must win the game at all costs? Evolutionary it wouldn't matter as long as the strongest wins, they would even die so that the female is busy eating them so that she can't mate. Another insect uses a "brush" to clean out any previous sperm, so that he definitly will be the father, what gave rise to that?? How could natural selection evolve that feature in a creature?