scholarly journals Cryptic host specialisation within Poecilochirus carabi mites explains population differences in the extent of co-adaptation with their burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides hosts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syuan-Jyun Sun ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Population Differences ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Pure Race ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Host Specialisation ◽  
Small Vertebrate ◽  
Symbiotic Organisms

AbstractSymbiotic organisms adapt to one another but the extent of co-adaptation commonly varies among pairs of the same symbiotic species drawn from different populations. Here we identify some ecological causes of such differences between populations. We analysed the extent of local co-adaptation between burying beetles Nicrophorus vespilloides and their phoretic mites Poecilochirus carabi in Gamlingay and Waresley Woods, in Cambridgeshire, UK. Burying beetles transport mites to small vertebrate carrion upon which they both reproduce. We conducted reciprocal transplant experiments to test for evidence of local co-adaptation during reproduction. We found variation in the extent of local co-adaptation that was explained by cryptic host specialisation within P. carabi mites. P. carabi is a species complex, within which races of mites are specialised to associate with different species of burying beetle. We found that N. vespilloides from Gamlingay Wood carries a mixture of mite races, from each of the four Nicrophorus species that inhabits this wood. This mixture of races makes P.carabi harmful to Gamlingay N. vespilloides: together, they reduce beetle reproductive success. Experimentally purifying mites, so that Gamlingay N. vespilloides is associated only with the vespilloides mite race, improves beetle reproductive success. Waresley N. vespilloides, by contrast, carry a near pure race of vespilloides mites, which cause negligible damage to Waresley N. vespilloides reproductive success. This is probably because Waresley Wood harbours only two burying beetle species, which differ markedly in their reproductive biology. Cryptic host specialisation with P. carabi mites, combined with differences in the Nicrophorus guild between Gamlingay and Waresley Woods, therefore explain population differences in the extent of local adaptation between N. vespilloides and P. carabi.

scholarly journals Temperature stress induces mites to help their carrion beetle hosts by eliminating rival blowflies

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syuan-Jyun Sun ◽  
Rebecca M Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Temperature Stress ◽  
Mite Species ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Common Enemy ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Carrion Beetle ◽  
Small Vertebrate ◽  
Phoretic Mite

Ecological conditions are known to change the expression of mutualisms though the causal agents driving such changes remain poorly understood. Here we show that temperature stress modulates the harm threatened by a common enemy, and thereby induces a phoretic mite to become a protective mutualist. Our experiments focus on the interactions between the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, an associated mite species Poecilochirus carabi and their common enemy, blowflies, when all three species reproduce on the same small vertebrate carrion. We show that mites compete with beetle larvae for food in the absence of blowflies, and reduce beetle reproductive success. However, when blowflies breed on the carrion too, mites enhance beetle reproductive success by eating blowfly eggs. High densities of mites are especially effective at promoting beetle reproductive success at higher and lower natural ranges in temperature, when blowfly larvae are more potent rivals for the limited resources on the carcass.

scholarly journals Evolutionary change in the construction of the nursery environment when parents are prevented from caring for their young directly

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (48) ◽  
pp. e2102450118
Author(s):  
Ana Duarte ◽  
Darren Rebar ◽  
Allysa C. Hallett ◽  
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Experimental Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Direct Care ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Extended Phenotype ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Cross Fostering

Parental care can be partitioned into traits that involve direct engagement with offspring and traits that are expressed as an extended phenotype and influence the developmental environment, such as constructing a nursery. Here, we use experimental evolution to test whether parents can evolve modifications in nursery construction when they are experimentally prevented from supplying care directly to offspring. We exposed replicate experimental populations of burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) to different regimes of posthatching care by allowing larvae to develop in the presence (Full Care) or absence of parents (No Care). After only 13 generations of experimental evolution, we found an adaptive evolutionary increase in the pace at which parents in the No Care populations converted a dead body into a carrion nest for larvae. Cross-fostering experiments further revealed that No Care larvae performed better on a carrion nest prepared by No Care parents than did Full Care larvae. We conclude that parents construct the nursery environment in relation to their effectiveness at supplying care directly, after offspring are born. When direct care is prevented entirely, they evolve to make compensatory adjustments to the nursery in which their young will develop. The rapid evolutionary change observed in our experiments suggests there is considerable standing genetic variation for parental care traits in natural burying beetle populations—for reasons that remain unclear.

scholarly journals Early‐life effects on body size in each sex interact to determine reproductive success in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (12) ◽  
pp. 1725-1734
Author(s):  
Eleanor K. Bladon ◽  
Sinead English ◽  
Sonia Pascoal ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

scholarly journals Competition within species determines the value of a mutualism between species

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syuan-Jyun Sun ◽  
Nicholas P.C. Horrocks ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Body Temperature ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Scarce Resource ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

AbstractSocial interactions within species, and mutualisms between species are both well characterised, but their influence on each other is poorly understood. We determined how interactions among burying beetles Nicrophorus vespilloides influence the value of their interactions with the mite Poecilochirus carabi. Beetles transport these mites to carrion, upon which both species breed. We show that mites help beetles win intraspecific contests for this scarce resource: mites raise beetle body temperature, which enhances beetle competitive prowess. However, mites confer this benefit only upon smaller beetles, which are otherwise doomed by their size to lose contests for carrion. Larger beetles need no assistance to win a carcass and lose reproductive success when breeding alongside mites. We conclude that social interactions within species explain whether interactions with another species are mutualistic or parasitic.One Sentence SummarySocial interactions within species can explain whether interactions with a second species are mutualistic or parasitic.

scholarly journals Adaptive evolution of synchronous egg-hatching in compensation for the loss of parental care

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1885) ◽  
pp. 20181452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett ◽  
Darren Rebar ◽  
Hannah B. Haynes ◽  
Miranda R. Leaf ◽  
Chay Halliwell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
The Body ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Egg Hatching ◽  
Asynchronous Hatching ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Experimental Populations ◽  
And Control ◽  
Better Than

Interactions among siblings are finely balanced between rivalry and cooperation, but the factors that tip the balance towards cooperation are incompletely understood. Previous observations of insect species suggest that (i) sibling cooperation is more likely when siblings hatch at the same time, and (ii) this is more common when parents provide little to no care. In this paper, we tested these ideas experimentally with the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides . Burying beetles convert the body of a small dead vertebrate into an edible nest for their larvae, and provision and guard their young after hatching. In our first experiment, we simulated synchronous or asynchronous hatching by adding larvae at different intervals to the carrion-breeding resource. We found that ‘synchronously’ hatched broods survived better than ‘asynchronously’ hatched broods, probably because ‘synchronous hatching’ generated larger teams of larvae, that together worked more effectively to penetrate the carrion nest and feed upon it. In our second experiment, we measured the synchronicity of hatching in experimental populations that had evolved for 22 generations without any post-hatching care, and control populations that had evolved in parallel with post-hatching care. We found that larvae were more likely to hatch earlier, and at the same time as their broodmates, in the experimental populations that evolved without post-hatching care. We suggest that synchronous hatching enables offspring to help each other when parents are not present to provide care. However, we also suggest that greater levels of cooperation among siblings cannot compensate fully for the loss of parental care.

scholarly journals A gene for social immunity in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
William JP Palmer ◽  
Ana Duarte ◽  
Matthew Schrader ◽  
Jonathan P Day ◽  
Rebecca Kilner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Microbial Growth ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Social Immunity ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Living Species ◽  
Six Genes

Some group-living species exhibit social immunity, where the immune system of one individual can protect others in the group from infection. In burying beetles this is part of parental care. Larvae feed on vertebrate carcasses which their parents smear with exudates that inhibit microbial growth. We have sequenced the transcriptome of the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides and identified six genes that encode lysozymes – a type of antimicrobial enzyme that has previously been implicated in social immunity in burying beetles. When females start breeding and producing antimicrobial anal exudates, we found that the expression of one of these genes was increased by ~1000 times to become one of the most abundant transcripts in the transcriptome. We conclude that we have likely identified a gene for social immunity, and that it was recruited during evolution from a previous function in personal immunity.

scholarly journals Privatization of a breeding resource by the burying beetleNicrophorus vespilloidesis associated with shifts in bacterial communities

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Duarte ◽  
Martin Welch ◽  
Josef Wagner ◽  
Rebecca M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Animal Behaviour ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Bacterial Dna ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Small Vertebrate ◽  
Breeding Resources ◽  
Bacterial Groups

AbstractIt is still poorly understood how animal behaviour shapes bacterial communities and their evolution. We use burying beetles,Nicrophorus vespilloides, to investigate how animal behaviour impacts the assembly of bacterial communities. Burying beetles use small vertebrate carcasses as breeding resources, which they roll into a ball, smear with antimicrobial exudates and bury. Using high-throughput sequencing we characterize bacterial communities on fresh mouse carcasses, aged carcasses prepared by beetles, and aged carcasses that were manually buried. The long-standing hypothesis that burying beetles ‘clean’ the carcass from bacteria is refuted, as we found higher loads of bacterial DNA in beetle-prepared carcasses. Beetle-prepared carcasses were similar to fresh carcasses in terms of species richness and diversity. Beetle-prepared carcasses distinguish themselves from manually buried carcasses by the reduction of groups such as Proteobacteria and increase of groups such as Flavobacteriales and Clostridiales. Network analysis suggests that, despite differences in membership, network topology is similar between fresh and beetle-prepared carcasses. We then examined the bacterial communities in guts and exudates of breeding and non-breeding beetles. Breeding was associated with higher diversity and species richness. Breeding beetles exhibited several bacterial groups in common with their breeding resource, but that association is likely to disappear after breeding.

scholarly journals Alternative tactics and individual reproductive success in natural associations of the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 196-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef K. Müller ◽  
Veronika Braunisch ◽  
Wenbe Hwang ◽  
Anne-Katrin Eggert
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Alternative Tactics ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides
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