Digest: Deprivation of parental care reveals the value of sibling cooperation in burying beetles

Abstract

What conditions favor cooperation in sibling interactions? In burying beetles of the genus Nicrophorus, Prang et al. found that dependence on parental care cannot solely explain the degree of offspring cooperation. While only larvae of independent species cooperated when receiving pre-hatching care, both independent and dependent species cooperated in the absence of pre-hatching care. This finding suggests that offspring cooperation has persisted from an early ancestor of the genus Nicrophorus to the present species, highlighting the evolution from facultative to obligatory social behavior.