Sex differences in parental defence against conspecific intruders in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides

shippi, Athina Georgiou; Paquet, Matthieu; Smiseth, Per T.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.12.011

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…These results are consistent with the findings on a related species of burying beetle (Kishida and Suzuki, 2010) and support our prediction that sex differences in parental care would be more pronounced as carcass mass decreased. Our results are consistent with prior work on N. vespilloides showing that females spend more time provisioning food to the brood (e.g., Smiseth et al, 2005;Georgiou-Shippi et al, 2018) and care for longer than males (Bartlett, 1988;Ford and Smiseth, 2016), and that males often adjust the amount of care they provide in response to variation in environmental conditions, whilst females tend to provide a similar amount of care regardless of such variation (Walling et al, 2008;Royle et al, 2014;Smiseth et al, 2005). These sex differences in parental care are thought to reflect that males can gain some reproductive success by mating away from a carcass whilst female require access to a carcass in order to reproduce (Müller et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Both female and male parents provide care by provisioning predigested carrion to the larvae and defending the carcass and the brood from conspecific intruders (Eggert et al, 1998;Scott, 1998). Females spend more time on parental care (e.g., Smiseth et al, 2005;Georgiou-Shippi et al, 2018) and care for longer than males (Bartlett, 1988;Ford and Smiseth, 2016), yet it is unclear what impact variation in carcass mass would have on the magnitude of such sex differences in care. Prior work also shows that there are synergistic effects of biparental cooperation, and that that these often outweigh the detrimental effects of sexual conflict (Pilakouta et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Access to Resources Shapes Sex Differences Between Caring Parents

et al. 2021

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In species where both parents cooperate to care for their joint offspring, one sex often provides more care than the other. The magnitude of such sex differences often varies both between and within species and may depend on environmental conditions, such as access to resources, predation risk and interspecific competition. Here we investigated the impact of one such environmental variable – access to resources for breeding – on the magnitude of sex differences in parental care in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. This species breeds on the carcasses of small vertebrates, which are the sole food source for parents and offspring during breeding. We manipulated access to resources by providing pairs with mouse carcasses from a broad mass range (3.65–26.15 g). We then monitored subsequent effects on the duration and amount of care provided by males and females, male and female food consumption and weight change during breeding, and larval traits related to offspring performance. We found that males increased their duration of care as carcass mass increased, while females remained with the brood until it had completed its development irrespective of carcass mass. There were thus more pronounced sex differences in parental care when parents had access to fewer resources for breeding. Overall, our findings show that sex differences between caring parents vary depending on access to resources during breeding. The finding that males extended their duration of care on larger carcasses suggests that access to more resources leads to a shift toward more cooperation between caring parents.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Access to Resources Shapes Sex Differences Between Caring Parents

et al. 2021

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“…To distinguish between the focal female and her competitor, we marked each female by applying either one or two small spots of correction fluid to their elytra. Such marks are short lasting, nontoxic and have no discernible effect on behaviour (Georgiou Shippi, Paquet, & Smiseth, 2018;Hagler & Jackson, 2001;Richardson & Smiseth, 2017).…”

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased allocation to reproduction reduces future competitive ability in a burying beetle

Richardson

Stephens

Smiseth

2020

Journal of Animal Ecology

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1. The existence of a trade-off between current and future reproduction is a fundamental prediction of life history theory. Support for this prediction comes from brood size manipulations, showing that caring for enlarged broods often reduces the parent's future survival or fecundity. However, in many species, individuals must invest in competing for the resources required for future reproduction. Thus, a neglected aspect of this trade-off is that increased allocation to current reproduction may reduce an individual's future competitive ability.2. We tested this prediction in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides, a species where parents care for their offspring and where there is fierce competition for resources used for breeding.3. We manipulated reproductive effort by providing females with either a small brood of 10 larvae or a large brood of 40 larvae and compared the ability of these females, and virgin females that had no prior access to a carcass, to compete for a second carcass against a virgin competitor. 4. We found that increased allocation to current reproduction reduced future competitive ability, as females that had cared for a small brood were more successful when competing for a second carcass against a virgin competitor than females that had cared for a large brood. In addition, the costs of reproduction were offset by the benefits of feeding from the carcass during an initial breeding attempt, as females that had cared for a small brood were better competitors than virgin females that had no prior access to a carcass, whilst females that had cared for a large brood were similar in competitive ability to virgin females. 5. Our results add to our understanding of the trade-off between current and future reproduction by showing that this trade-off can manifest through differences in future competitive ability and that direct benefits of reproduction can offset some of these costs.

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“…Our findings have important implications for our understanding of parental behaviour under the risk of infection by showing that infected females maintained a high level of care despite that infections could expose their offspring to the pathogen. Thus, our results show that the level of care is remarkably stable in response to infection, despite evidence that parents often show a great amount of plasticity in response to other environmental factors, such as resource abundance and the presence of competitors and infanticidal conspecifics (Smiseth & Moore, 2002;Hopwood et al 2015;Georgiou Shippi et al 2018). Furthermore, behavioural plasticity represents the first mechanism of immunity (Schaller, 2006;Schaller & Park, 2011;Kiesecker et al, 1999) and might allow infected individuals to reduce the risk of transmission to close kin, such as offspring (Shakhar & Shakhar, 2015;Shakhar, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Carry on caring: infected females maintain their level of parental care despite suffering high mortality

Ratz

Monteith

Vale

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Parental care is a key component of an organism’s reproductive strategy that is thought to trade-off with allocation towards immunity. Yet it is unclear how caring parents respond to pathogens: do infected parents reduce their amount of care as a sickness behaviour or simply from being ill, or do they prioritise their offspring by maintaining high levels of care? Here we explored the consequences of infection by the pathogen Serratia marcescens on mortality, time spent providing care, reproductive output, and expression of immune genes of female parents in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. We compared untreated control females with infected females that were inoculated with live bacteria, immune-challenged females that were inoculated with heat-killed bacteria, and injured females that were injected with buffer. We found that infected and immune-challenged females mounted an immune response and that infected females suffered increased mortality. Nevertheless, infected and immune-challenged females maintained their normal level of care and reproductive output. There was thus no evidence that infection led to either a decrease or an increase in parental care or reproductive output. Our results show that parental care, which is generally highly flexible, can remain remarkably robust and consistent despite the elevated mortality caused by infection by pathogens. Overall, these findings suggest that infected females maintain a high level of parental care; a strategy that may ensure that offspring receive the necessary amount of care but that might be detrimental to the parents’ own survival or that may even facilitate disease transmission to offspring.

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Sex differences in parental defence against conspecific intruders in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides

Cited by 14 publications

References 50 publications

Access to Resources Shapes Sex Differences Between Caring Parents

Access to Resources Shapes Sex Differences Between Caring Parents

Increased allocation to reproduction reduces future competitive ability in a burying beetle

Carry on caring: infected females maintain their level of parental care despite suffering high mortality

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