roximately nine to one, because "If a male can mate with nine females and the population contains a hundred individuals, then why not make ten males and ninety females?" (70). Again, the reason is that, as Darwin argued and evidence supports, nature's selection process focuses on the individual and not the species or the population as a whole.
Gould then looks for exceptions to the rule in order to discover the limitations of the rule. He finds the example of the male mite in the genus Adactylidium. This male
emerges from its mother's body and promptly dies within a few hours, having done apparently nothing during its brief life. It attempts, while outside its mother, neither to feed nor to mate. . . . The males of Adactylidium seem to do nothing at all but emerge and die (73).
The secret to the mystery of this male mite is twofold. In the first place, one discovers that this particular mite engages in sibling sexual rep
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