Semelparous
Semelparous organisms reproduce only once in their lives and then die. The most well known ones are Pacific salmon that perish after spawning. Other examples are squid, mayflies and plants which die after setting seed (annuals). The adult diverts resources into producing huge amounts of offspring to ensure sufficient numbers reach maturity without any parental care. This is why bears largely ignore dead salmon after they've spawned - all the salmon's fat has gone into producing sperm and eggs and little nutrional value is left.
Watch video clips from past programmes (2 clips)
In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.
17 year swarm
Brief encounters
Life in the Undergrowth
Giant mayflies have only half an hour's flying time to find a mate.
Featured in the following TV programmes
-
Archived
Life in the Undergrowth: TAKING TO THE AIR
From the stunning aerobatics of hoverflies to the mass migration of purple crow butterflies this film tells the story of the winged insects.
North Pacific giant octopus 
Giant cuttlefish 
Monarch butterfly 
Tisza mayfly 
Brown trout About
Semelparity and Iteroparity refer to the reproductive strategy of an organism. A species is considered semelparous if it reproduces a single time before it dies, and iteroparous if it has many reproductive cycles over the course of its lifetime. In plants, the term monocarpy is equivalent to semelparity, and polycarpy is equivalent to iteroparity.
Horticulturists and plant ecologists use the related terms annual and perennial. An annual is a plant that completes its life cycle in a single season, and is usually semelparous, while perennials live for more than one season and are usually iteroparous. However, there are many exceptions.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.
Other Reproduction Adaptations
Elsewhere on the web
- Semelparity and iteroparity (wikipedia.org)
Site links
BBC links
© MMIX
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.