Resource concealment and the evolution of parental care in burying beetles

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. T. Trumbo ◽  
D. S. Sikes
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Burying Beetles

scholarly journals Evolutionary change in the construction of the nursery environment when parents are prevented from caring for their young directly

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (48) ◽  
pp. e2102450118
Author(s):  
Ana Duarte ◽  
Darren Rebar ◽  
Allysa C. Hallett ◽  
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Experimental Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Direct Care ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Extended Phenotype ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Cross Fostering

Parental care can be partitioned into traits that involve direct engagement with offspring and traits that are expressed as an extended phenotype and influence the developmental environment, such as constructing a nursery. Here, we use experimental evolution to test whether parents can evolve modifications in nursery construction when they are experimentally prevented from supplying care directly to offspring. We exposed replicate experimental populations of burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) to different regimes of posthatching care by allowing larvae to develop in the presence (Full Care) or absence of parents (No Care). After only 13 generations of experimental evolution, we found an adaptive evolutionary increase in the pace at which parents in the No Care populations converted a dead body into a carrion nest for larvae. Cross-fostering experiments further revealed that No Care larvae performed better on a carrion nest prepared by No Care parents than did Full Care larvae. We conclude that parents construct the nursery environment in relation to their effectiveness at supplying care directly, after offspring are born. When direct care is prevented entirely, they evolve to make compensatory adjustments to the nursery in which their young will develop. The rapid evolutionary change observed in our experiments suggests there is considerable standing genetic variation for parental care traits in natural burying beetle populations—for reasons that remain unclear.

Parental Care in Burying Beetles: The Organization of Male and Female Brood-care Behavior

Ethology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle A. Fetherston ◽  
Michelle Pellissier Scott ◽  
James F. A. Traniello
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Brood Care ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Brood ◽  
Care Behavior

scholarly journals From facultative to obligatory parental care: Interspecific variation in offspring dependency on post-hatching care in burying beetles

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Capodeanu-Nägler ◽  
Eva M. Keppner ◽  
Heiko Vogel ◽  
Manfred Ayasse ◽  
Anne-Katrin Eggert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Interspecific Variation ◽  
Burying Beetles

scholarly journals Adaptive evolution of synchronous egg-hatching in compensation for the loss of parental care

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1885) ◽  
pp. 20181452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett ◽  
Darren Rebar ◽  
Hannah B. Haynes ◽  
Miranda R. Leaf ◽  
Chay Halliwell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
The Body ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Egg Hatching ◽  
Asynchronous Hatching ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Experimental Populations ◽  
And Control ◽  
Better Than

Interactions among siblings are finely balanced between rivalry and cooperation, but the factors that tip the balance towards cooperation are incompletely understood. Previous observations of insect species suggest that (i) sibling cooperation is more likely when siblings hatch at the same time, and (ii) this is more common when parents provide little to no care. In this paper, we tested these ideas experimentally with the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides . Burying beetles convert the body of a small dead vertebrate into an edible nest for their larvae, and provision and guard their young after hatching. In our first experiment, we simulated synchronous or asynchronous hatching by adding larvae at different intervals to the carrion-breeding resource. We found that ‘synchronously’ hatched broods survived better than ‘asynchronously’ hatched broods, probably because ‘synchronous hatching’ generated larger teams of larvae, that together worked more effectively to penetrate the carrion nest and feed upon it. In our second experiment, we measured the synchronicity of hatching in experimental populations that had evolved for 22 generations without any post-hatching care, and control populations that had evolved in parallel with post-hatching care. We found that larvae were more likely to hatch earlier, and at the same time as their broodmates, in the experimental populations that evolved without post-hatching care. We suggest that synchronous hatching enables offspring to help each other when parents are not present to provide care. However, we also suggest that greater levels of cooperation among siblings cannot compensate fully for the loss of parental care.

A pheromone that coordinates parental care is evolutionary conserved among burying beetles (Silphidae: Nicrophorus)

Chemoecology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Katharina C. Engel ◽  
Wenbe Hwang ◽  
Sandra Steiger
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Burying Beetles

scholarly journals A gene for social immunity in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
William JP Palmer ◽  
Ana Duarte ◽  
Matthew Schrader ◽  
Jonathan P Day ◽  
Rebecca Kilner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Microbial Growth ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Social Immunity ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Living Species ◽  
Six Genes

Some group-living species exhibit social immunity, where the immune system of one individual can protect others in the group from infection. In burying beetles this is part of parental care. Larvae feed on vertebrate carcasses which their parents smear with exudates that inhibit microbial growth. We have sequenced the transcriptome of the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides and identified six genes that encode lysozymes – a type of antimicrobial enzyme that has previously been implicated in social immunity in burying beetles. When females start breeding and producing antimicrobial anal exudates, we found that the expression of one of these genes was increased by ~1000 times to become one of the most abundant transcripts in the transcriptome. We conclude that we have likely identified a gene for social immunity, and that it was recruited during evolution from a previous function in personal immunity.

scholarly journals Male burying beetles extend, not reduce, parental care duration when reproductive competition is high

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 1394-1402 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. E. Hopwood ◽  
A. J. Moore ◽  
T. Tregenza ◽  
N. J. Royle
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Reproductive Competition ◽  
Burying Beetles

scholarly journals Effect of Carcass Size on Feeding Modes of Larvae ofNicrophorus quadripunctatusKraatz (Coleoptera: Silphidae)

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryu Kishida ◽  
Nobuhiko Suzuki
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Feeding Modes ◽  
Long Time

In the parental care of burying beetles ofNicrophorus, the role of males has not been clearly elucidated. To test our hypothesis that the investment in resource manipulation by males influences the feeding of larvae by males, we investigated parental efforts ofN. quadripunctatus. On the small carcasses, the time spent on resource manipulation by males was short, and the males left the carcasses without feeding the larvae (maternal feeding). On the large carcasses, the males spent a long time on resource manipulation, and the male participated in the feeding of larvae (biparental feeding). This suggests that one of the reproductive roles of males in the absence of predators and/or competitors is resource manipulation, and the paternal efforts change depending on carcass size. A longer time spent on resource manipulation by males may be a trigger for the males to participate in the feeding of larvae on large carcasses.

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