Mothers adjust egg size to helper number in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Taborsky, Barbara; Skubic, Eva; Bruintjes, Rick

doi:10.1093/beheco/arm026

Cited by 101 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Heg et al 2005), although on average, the between-group distance in our main study population is 90 cm (Heg et al 2008). Previous studies have found positive effects of the presence of helpers of various sizes and sexes on the breeder's survival (Heg et al 2004a), egg production (Taborsky 1984) and offspring survival (Brouwer et al 2005) and negative effects on average egg mass (Taborsky et al 2007). Our study shows that the presence of a single, large female helper has a slightly, nonsignificant negative effect on clutch size and significantly increases egg mass (Table 1).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Eggs with obvious abnormalities (clear cuticle or breakable) were collected and weighed separately and, since they were extraordinarily light, discarded from all analyses, leaving a total of 23,212 valid eggs. The total mass per dish was determined to the nearest 0.1 mg (Mettler AE100 balance) after 32 h drying in a stove at 70°C (measured once, dry eggs moved to a second dish and measured again and averaged to account for measurement errors; see also Taborsky et al 2007). The two dishes were weighed empty to the nearest 0.1 mg. Average egg mass was calculated as the (total mass minus mass of empty dish)/number of eggs per dish.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tug-of-war over reproduction in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Heg

Hamilton

2008

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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In group-living animals, dominants may suppress subordinate reproduction directly and indirectly, thereby skewing reproduction in their favour. In this study, we show experimentally that this ability ('power') is influenced by resource distribution and the body size difference between unrelated dominants and subordinates in the cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher. Reproduction was strongly skewed towards the dominant female, due to these females producing more and larger clutches and those clutches surviving egg eating better than those of subordinate females, but was not so when subordinates defended a patch. If breeding shelters were provided in two patches, subordinate females were more likely to exclusively defend a patch against the dominant female and breed, compared to when the same breeding resource was provided in one patch. Relatively large subordinate females were more likely to defend a patch and reproduce. Females also directly interfered with each other's reproduction by eating the competitors' eggs, at which dominants were more successful. Although dominant females benefited from subordinate females due to alloparental care and an increase in egg mass, they also showed costs due to reduced growth in the presence of subordinates. The results support the view that the dominant's power to control subordinate reproduction determines reproductive partitioning, in agreement with the predictions from tug-of-war models of reproductive skew.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tug-of-war over reproduction in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Heg

Hamilton

2008

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…Consequently, the genetic fitness of dominants should be largely independent of the degree of relatedness to subordinate helpers and hence their reproductive decisions should be unaffected by kinship. In contrast, helping to gain indirect benefits predicts that dominant females should base their reproductive effort on the degree of relatedness to their helpers: If kin-selection is primarily responsible for cooperation among the group members, related subordinates should be more helpful than unrelated ones, which would allow adaptive adjustment of reproduction of dominant females 51 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinship reduces alloparental care in cooperative cichlids where helpers pay-to-stay

et al. 2013

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Alloparental brood care, where individuals help raising the offspring of others, is generally believed to be favoured by high degrees of relatedness between helpers and recipients. Here we show that in cooperatively breeding cichlids, unrelated subordinate females provide more alloparental care than related ones when kinship between dominant and subordinate group members is experimentally manipulated. In addition, unrelated helpers increased alloparental care after we simulated egg cannibalism by helpers, an effect not shown by related helpers. By supporting predictions of pay-to-stay theory, these results suggest that in Neolamprologus pulcher, reciprocal commodity trading is important for the decision of subordinates to invest in care of the dominants' offspring.

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“…Outside of advanced insect-type systems (see above), we know of only one published study that has considered egg sizes in a cooperative fish (Taborsky et al 2007) and one in a cooperative bird (Russell et al 2007b). In the cichlid fish, N. pulcher, experimental increases in group size caused reductions in the size of eggs laid by the breeding female, but no change in clutch size.…”

Section: Maternal Effects As Confounds Of Fitness Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal effects in cooperative breeders: from hymenopterans to humans

Russell

Lummaa

2009

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

106

153

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The environment that an offspring experiences during its development can have lifelong consequences for its morphology, anatomy, physiology and behaviour that are strong enough to span generations. One aspect of an offspring's environment that can have particularly pronounced and long-lasting effects is that provided by its parent(s) (maternal effects). Some disciplines in biology have been quicker to appreciate maternal effects than others, and some organisms provide better model systems for understanding the causes and consequences of the maternal environment for ecology and evolution than others. One field in which maternal effects has been poorly represented, and yet is likely to represent a particularly fruitful area for research, is the field of cooperative breeding (i.e. systems where offspring are reared by carers in addition to parent(s)). Here, we attempt to illustrate the scope of cooperative breeding systems for maternal effects research and, conversely, highlight the importance of maternal effects research for understanding cooperative breeding systems. To this end, we first outline why mothers will commonly benefit from affecting the phenotype of their offspring in cooperative breeding systems, present potential strategies that mothers could employ in order to do so and offer predictions regarding the circumstances under which different types of maternal effects might be expected. Second, we highlight why a neglect of maternal strategies and the effects that they have on their offspring could lead to miscalculations of helper/worker fitness gains and a misunderstanding of the factors selecting for the evolution and maintenance of cooperative breeding. Finally, we introduce the possibility that maternal effects could have significant consequences for our understanding of both the evolutionary origins of cooperative breeding and the rise of social complexity in cooperative systems.

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Mothers adjust egg size to helper number in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Cited by 101 publications

References 44 publications

Tug-of-war over reproduction in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Tug-of-war over reproduction in a cooperatively breeding cichlid

Kinship reduces alloparental care in cooperative cichlids where helpers pay-to-stay

Maternal effects in cooperative breeders: from hymenopterans to humans

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