Genic variation in male haploids and male diploids was compared assuming constant fitnesses (derived from computer-generated random numbers) and infinite population size. Several models were studied, differing by the fitness correlation between the sexes (r(s)) and genotypes (r(g)), and by the intensity of selection as measured by the coefficient of variation (CV) of the fitness distribution. Genic variation was quantified using the proportion of polymorphic loci, P, the gene diversity at polymorphic loci, H(p), and the gene diversity over all loci, H(a). The two genetic systems were compared via variation ratios: variation in male haploidy/variation in male diploidy.-P and H(a) were markedly lower for male-haploids than for male diploids, the variation ratios declining with increasing r(s), r(g) and CV, but the two genetic systems were similar for H(p). Except for male diploids with r(s) = 1, the two sexes had different equilibrium gene frequencies but the sample sizes required to detect such differences reliably were larger than usually possible in surveys of natural populations.-Data from natural populations fit the above trends qualitatively, but the variation ratios are much lower than those from our analyses, except that for H(p), which is higher when Drosophila is excluded. Also, the frequency distribution of most common alleles from electrophoretic data has a deficiency of intermediate frequencies compared to that from the computer-generated sets of fitnesses, possibly reflecting either the influence of stochastic processes shifting frequencies away from equilibrium or the involvement of alleles under selection-mutation balance.--While electrophoretic data suggest that Drosophila has unusually high levels of genic variation, unusually low levels of genic variation in male haploids compared with male diploids are not strongly indicated. However, if further data confirm male haploids as having low levels of genic variation, likely explanations are that the bulk of electrophoretically detected variation involves fixed-fitness balancing selection, selection-mutation balance involving slightly deleterious recessive alleles, new favorable male haploid alleles moving more rapidly to fixation than under male diploidy and thus carrying linked loci to fixation faster, or some combination of these possible factors.