Chemical stimuli from parents trigger larval begging in burying beetles

Smiseth, Per T.; Andrews, Clare; Brown, Erica; Prentice, Pamela M.

doi:10.1093/beheco/arq019

Cited by 41 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Thus, chemical stimuli from parents play an important role in parent-offspring interactions. Parents cannot discriminate between related and unrelated offspring based on direct cues about kinship and also offspring appear to lack the ability to distinguish between related and unrelated caretakers, at least they do not show any differences in the time of begging towards their biological mother and an unrelated breeding beetle (Smiseth et al 2010). However, whereas the parents would benefit if they could discriminate against unrelated larvae based on direct kin recognition cues, the offspring would have no obvious advantage from kin discrimination.…”

Section: The Offspring's Viewpointmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…However, the larvae do not actively avoid non-breeding female intruder, rather they only spend less time begging in the presence of an intruder female. Therefore it is likely that this discrimination is not an adaptive mechanism for avoiding contact with infanticidal females, but is a by-product of stimulus discrimination (Smiseth et al 2010). As already outlined above, breeding beetles have a different chemical profile than non-breeding ones and as a result chemical cues that trigger begging might be expressed differently in breeding and non-breeding beetles.…”

Section: The Offspring's Viewpointmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the stridulatory sound parents produce may help to orientate towards a parent (Huerta et al 1992), it has been shown that acoustic and also behavioral cues are not necessary for triggering begging behavior, as larvae also beg towards a dead beetle (Smiseth and Parker 2008). However, if the parents' cuticular lipids are removed by washing them in pentane, begging behavior is significantly reduced (Smiseth et al 2010). Thus, chemical stimuli from parents play an important role in parent-offspring interactions.…”

Section: The Offspring's Viewpointmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, as a larva might originate from a brood parasite, not displaying any begging behavior towards an unrelated caretaker would reduce its growth and therefore be detrimental. Interestingly, Smiseth et al (2010) has shown that larvae are able to discriminate between a breeding and a non-breeding and therefore infanticidal female. However, the larvae do not actively avoid non-breeding female intruder, rather they only spend less time begging in the presence of an intruder female.…”

Section: The Offspring's Viewpointmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recognition and Family Life: Recognition Mechanisms in the Biparental Burying Beetle

Steiger

2015

Social Recognition in Invertebrates

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Burying beetles (genus Nicrophorus) are one of the few insect taxa that provide elaborate prehatching and posthatching biparental care. They reproduce on dead vertebrates and both parents are known to feed and defend their young. In this chapter, I will show that both of their key characteristics, their extended biparental care as well as their reproduction on a valuable and sought-after resource gave rise to the evolution of sophisticated recognition mechanisms. They are able to recognize the sex of a conspecific, their previous mating partner, their breeding partner including its reproductive sate and-using temporal cues-their offspring. I will provide an overview of the recent advances in elucidating the recognition processes of burying beetles and will demonstrate that most of the recognition mechanisms are mediated by chemical cues and signals.

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Section: The Offspring's Viewpointmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: The Offspring's Viewpointmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Offspring's Viewpointmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Offspring's Viewpointmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Recognition and Family Life: Recognition Mechanisms in the Biparental Burying Beetle

Steiger

2015

Social Recognition in Invertebrates

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“…This is also the case in gregarious insect larvae [4][5][6] whose aggregation behaviour often depends on chemical cues such as cuticular substances and other compounds mixed in faeces [7,8]. In non-social insects, chemical cues emitted by adults can also influence larval behaviour [9,10]. Reciprocally, when larvae develop in the food, they can leave chemical cues affecting adult behaviour including female attraction and oviposition [11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Drosophila adult and larval pheromones modulate larval food choice

2014

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ResearchCite this article: Farine J-P, Cortot J, Ferveur J-F. 2014 Drosophila adult and larval pheromones modulate larval food choice. Insects use chemosensory cues to feed and mate. In Drosophila, the effect of pheromones has been extensively investigated in adults, but rarely in larvae. The colonization of natural food sources by Drosophila buzzatii and Drosophila simulans species may depend on species-specific chemical cues left in the food by larvae and adults. We identified such chemicals in both species and measured their influence on larval food preference and puparation behaviour. We also tested compounds that varied between these species: (i) two larval volatile compounds: hydroxy-3-butanone-2 and phenol ( predominant in D. simulans and D. buzzatii, respectively), and (ii) adult cuticular hydrocarbons (CHs). Drosophila buzzatii larvae were rapidly attracted to non-CH adult conspecific cues, whereas D. simulans larvae were strongly repulsed by CHs of the two species and also by phenol. Larval cues from both species generally reduced larval attraction and pupariation on food, which was generally-but not always-low, and rarely reflected larval response. As these larval and adult pheromones specifically influence larval food search and the choice of a pupariation site, they may greatly affect the dispersion and survival of Drosophila species in nature.

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Experimental evidence that adult UV/yellow colouration functions as a signal in blue tit families — but only for parents

García‐Campa

Müller

Morales

2022

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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In bi-parental species, reproduction is not only a crucial life-history stage where individuals must take fitness-related decisions, but these decisions also need to be adjusted to the behavioural strategies of other individuals. Hence, communication is required, which could be facilitated by informative signals. Yet, these signalling traits might have (co-)evolved in multiple contexts, as various family members usually meet and interact during reproduction. In this study, we experimentally explored for the first time whether a colourful plumage trait in adults acts as a signal that regulates multiple intra-family interactions in a bird species, the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus). We expected that an experimental reduction of adults’ UV/yellow reflectance (i.e. a reduction of apparent individual quality) should affect the behavioural strategies of all family members. We found evidence for this at least in adults, since the partners of UV-blocked individuals (either males or females) increased their parental investment — perhaps to compensate for the apparent lower condition of their mates. As the UV-blocked adult did not change its provisioning behaviour, the partner presumably responded to the manipulated signal and not to a behavioural change. However, the offspring did not co-adjust their begging intensity to the experimental treatment. It is thus possible that they responded to overall parental care rather than the signal. These results suggest that UV/yellow colouration of adult blue tits may act as quality signal revealing the rearing capacity to mates. Significance statement How parents respond to signals of genetic or phenotypic quality of their mates has received significant attention. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the receiver’s response and have not always controlled for the signaller’s behaviour and its investment in reproduction. Our results provide the first experimental evidence that ultraviolet (UV)/yellow colouration acts as a signal of parental quality in the blue tit. Parents responded by increasing their effort when paired with UV-blocked (low-quality) mates, while controlling for the mate’s behaviour. We argue that the reduced expression of the signal triggered a compensatory response in the mate. Interestingly, both males and females responded similarly to changes in mate’s UV/yellow reflectance, suggesting similar rules over investment in response to this trait. However, nestlings, a potential (and often neglected) set of observers of parental signals, did not change their behaviour when raised by an UV-blocked (= low-quality) parent.

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Chemical stimuli from parents trigger larval begging in burying beetles

Cited by 41 publications

References 38 publications

Recognition and Family Life: Recognition Mechanisms in the Biparental Burying Beetle

Recognition and Family Life: Recognition Mechanisms in the Biparental Burying Beetle

Drosophila adult and larval pheromones modulate larval food choice

Experimental evidence that adult UV/yellow colouration functions as a signal in blue tit families — but only for parents

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