Relative Abundance of <i>Nicrophorus Pustulatus</i> (Coleoptera: Silphidae) in a Burying Beetle Community, With Notes on its Reproductive Behavior

Robertson, Ian Ross

doi:10.1155/1992/85675

“…The parents also attend the carrion to slow down decay and growth of mould. Male parents desert the carrion first, whereas female parents usually stay until larval development is complete (Robertson, 1992).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary importance of parental care performance, food resources, and direct and indirect genetic effects in a burying beetle

Rauter

¹

,

Moore

²

2002

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

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Indirect genetic effects (IGE) of parental care performance and the direct–indirect covariance contribute substantially to total heritability in domesticated and laboratory mammals. For animals from natural populations empirical estimates of IGE are sparse. Thus, despite recent models relating IGE to evolution, evolutionary interpretations of IGE are limited. To address this deficit, we used a reciprocal cross‐fostering breeding design to estimate environmental influences, direct and indirect genetic effects, and direct–indirect genetic covariances in the burying beetle Nicrophorus pustulatus to determine the evolutionary importance of IGE arising from variation in parental care performance. Carrion size positively affected adult mass and time on carrion, but had no effect on total development time. Males were slightly larger than females. For both mass and development, independent of these environmental influences, direct and indirect genetic effects were of moderate magnitude. Total genetic effects explained 36–50% of the phenotypic variance in mass and size and 27–37% of phenotypic variance in development time. Direct–indirect genetic covariances were zero or close to zero. Thus, for both mass and development time, the response to natural selection arising from environmental variation may be accelerated by the presence of IGE in N. pustulatus. The generality of this pattern and the evolutionary significance of IGE arising from parental care awaits further study of natural populations.

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“…Like most burying beetles (Eggert and Mü ller 1997;Scott 1998), N. pustulatus bury and prepare invertebrate carrion as food resource for their offspring (Robertson 1992;Trumbo 1992). The first few days after larvae hatch, parents may provide regurgitated carrion as food either directly or as predigested droplets in a crater on top of the carrion ball where the larvae are located.…”

Section: Natural History Of Nicrophorus Pustulatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Genetics of Growth and Development Time in the Burying Beetle Nicrophorus Pustulatus in the Presence and Absence of Post-Hatching Parental Care

Rauter¹,

Moore²

2002

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Despite a growing interest in the evolutionary aspects of maternal effects, few studies have examined the genetic consequences of maternal effects associated with parental care. To begin to provide data on nonlaboratory or nondomestic animals, we compared the effect of presence and absence of parental care on phenotype expression of larval mass and development time at different life-history stages in the burying beetle Nicrophorus pustulatus. This beetle has facultative care; parents can feed their larvae through regurgitation of digested carrion or offspring can feed by themselves from previously prepared carrion. To investigate larval responses to these two levels of care, including estimates of additive genetic effects, maternal effects, and genotype-by-environment interactions, we used a half-sibling split-family breeding experiment-raising half of the offspring of a family in the presence of their mother and the other half without their mother present. Larvae reared with their mother present were on average heavier and developed faster, although some of the differences in development decreased or were eliminated by the adult stage. These results suggest that presence or absence of post-hatching maternal care plays an important role in phenotype expression early in life, whereas later the phenotype of the offspring is determined mainly by the genotype and/or unshared environmental effects. Our study also permitted us to examine the differences in genetic effects between the two care environments. Heritabilities, maternal/common environment effect, and most genetic correlations did not differ between the care treatments. Genetic analyses revealed substantial additive genetic effects for development time but small effects for measures of body mass. Maternal plus common environment effects were high for measures of mass but low for development time, suggesting that indirect genetic effects of maternal and/or common environment are less important for the evolution of development time than for mass. Estimates of genetic correlations revealed a trade-off between the duration of the two development stages after the offspring left the carrion. There was also a negative genetic correlation between the time spent on carrion and the mass at 72 h, when mothers usually stop feeding. The analysis of genotype-by-environment interactions indicates substantial variation among maternal families in response to care. Presence or absence of parental care may therefore contribute to the additive genetic variance through its interaction with the maternal component of the additive genetic variance. The presence of this interaction further suggests that parents may vary in care strategies, with some parents dispersing after preparation of the carrion and some parents staying with the larvae. This interaction may help maintain genetic variation in growth, development time, and parental care behavior. Additional work is needed, however, to quantify indirect genetic effects and genetic variation in parental care behavior itself.

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“…Nicrophorus pustulatus is found in southern Canada east of the Rocky Mountains and in the eastern United States from the Canadian border south to Texas and Florida (Anderson and Peck 1985;Peck and Kaulbars 1987). Like most burying beetles (Eggert and Mü ller 1997;Scott 1998), N. pustulatus bury and prepare invertebrate carrion as food resource for their offspring (Robertson 1992;Trumbo 1992). The first few days after larvae hatch, parents may provide regurgitated carrion as food either directly or as predigested droplets in a crater on top of the carrion ball where the larvae are located.…”

Section: Natural History Of Nicrophorus Pustulatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Genetics of Growth and Development Time in the Burying Beetle Nicrophorus Pustulatus in the Presence and Absence of Post-Hatching Parental Care

Rauter¹,

Moore²

2002

Evol

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Despite a growing interest in the evolutionary aspects of maternal effects, few studies have examined the genetic consequences of maternal effects associated with parental care. To begin to provide data on nonlaboratory or nondomestic animals, we compared the effect of presence and absence of parental care on phenotype expression of larval mass and development time at different life-history stages in the burying beetle Nicrophorus pustulatus. This beetle has facultative care; parents can feed their larvae through regurgitation of digested carrion or offspring can feed by themselves from previously prepared carrion. To investigate larval responses to these two levels of care, including estimates of additive genetic effects, maternal effects, and genotype-by-environment interactions, we used a half-sibling split-family breeding experiment-raising half of the offspring of a family in the presence of their mother and the other half without their mother present. Larvae reared with their mother present were on average heavier and developed faster, although some of the differences in development decreased or were eliminated by the adult stage. These results suggest that presence or absence of post-hatching maternal care plays an important role in phenotype expression early in life, whereas later the phenotype of the offspring is determined mainly by the genotype and/or unshared environmental effects. Our study also permitted us to examine the differences in genetic effects between the two care environments. Heritabilities, maternal/common environment effect, and most genetic correlations did not differ between the care treatments. Genetic analyses revealed substantial additive genetic effects for development time but small effects for measures of body mass. Maternal plus common environment effects were high for measures of mass but low for development time, suggesting that indirect genetic effects of maternal and/or common environment are less important for the evolution of development time than for mass. Estimates of genetic correlations revealed a trade-off between the duration of the two development stages after the offspring left the carrion. There was also a negative genetic correlation between the time spent on carrion and the mass at 72 h, when mothers usually stop feeding. The analysis of genotype-by-environment interactions indicates substantial variation among maternal families in response to care. Presence or absence of parental care may therefore contribute to the additive genetic variance through its interaction with the maternal component of the additive genetic variance. The presence of this interaction further suggests that parents may vary in care strategies, with some parents dispersing after preparation of the carrion and some parents staying with the larvae. This interaction may help maintain genetic variation in growth, development time, and parental care behavior. Additional work is needed, however, to quantify indirect genetic effects and genetic variation in parental care behavior itself.

show abstract

Relative Abundance of Nicrophorus Pustulatus (Coleoptera: Silphidae) in a Burying Beetle Community, With Notes on its Reproductive Behavior

Cited by 23 publications

References 13 publications

Evolutionary importance of parental care performance, food resources, and direct and indirect genetic effects in a burying beetle

Evolutionary importance of parental care performance, food resources, and direct and indirect genetic effects in a burying beetle

Quantitative Genetics of Growth and Development Time in the Burying Beetle Nicrophorus Pustulatus in the Presence and Absence of Post-Hatching Parental Care

Quantitative Genetics of Growth and Development Time in the Burying Beetle Nicrophorus Pustulatus in the Presence and Absence of Post-Hatching Parental Care

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