iteroparousadj.
/ˈɪtərəʊˌparəs/ Biology.
Characterized by or designating the production of multiple sets of offspring; usually applied to organisms or taxonomic groups in which the production of young occurs more than once during the life-cycle. Cf. semelparous adj.
ΚΠ
1954 L. C. Cole in Q. Rev. Biol. 29 118/1 Iteroparous species include some, such as small rodents, where only two or three litters of young are produced in a lifetime, and also various trees and tapeworms where a single individual may produce thousands of litters.
1970 Amer. Naturalist 104 8 Among the perennial organisms the two strikingly different kinds of life-history strategies are the repeated reproducers, or iteroparous organisms, and the big-bang reproducers, or semelparous organisms.
1979 Nature 7 June 554/1 For iteroparous plants it is often possible to show that reproduction has costs that are expressed in a reduced growth rate and/or an increased death rate.
1989 Functional Ecol. III. 646 For long-lived, iteroparous organisms fitness will always be extremely difficult to measure.
Derivatives
ˌiteroˈparity n. the state or condition of being iteroparous.
ΚΠ
1954 L. C. Cole in Q. Rev. Biol. 29 118/1 The writer proposes to employ the term semelparity to describe the condition of multiplying only once in a lifetime... The contrasting condition will be referred to as iteroparity.
1975 E. O. Wilson Sociobiol. xvi. 338/2 Iteroparity is the rule in the vertebrates.
1987 Amer. Naturalist 129 498 Withholding energy investments may allow females to avoid energy depletion during egg laying and permit increased iteroparity.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1993; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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adj.1954