The Selective Significance of the Sex Ratio

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Abstract
The genetic contribution which an individual makes to following generations is a function both of progeny size and of the sex ratios of its progeny and of the whole population. Excluding cases with features, such as parental care, leading to correlation between the no. of zygotes and the sex ratio, it is deduced that if the sex ratio of the entire population is 0.5 this contribution depends only on the size of the progeny. If there is an excess of males or of females in the population, an individual whose progeny has an excess of the opposite sex would contribute, on the avg., a greater proportion of the totality of autosomal genes to the generation following that of its progeny. Should there be a genetic basis for sex ratio differences, genes leading to establishment of a population sex ratio balanced at 0.5 would be thus selected. Therefore it is concluded that the 1:1 sex ratio is establishable as an equilibrium value. This equilibrium ratio is the primary sex ratio if differential survival of males and females is independent of the sex ratio of the progeny.

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