scholarly journals The effect of size and sex ratio experiences on reproductive competition in Nicrophorus vespilloides burying beetles in the wild

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. E. Hopwood ◽  
A. J. Moore ◽  
T. Tregenza ◽  
N. J. Royle
Keyword(s):  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Reproductive Competition ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
In The Wild

Intended and unintended receivers of the male pheromones of the burying beetles Nicrophorus humator and Nicrophorus vespilloides

2011 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolf Haberer ◽  
Thomas Schmitt ◽  
Peter Schreier ◽  
Josef K. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Male Pheromones ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

scholarly journals Rapid, ultra-local adaptation facilitated by phenotypic plasticity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syuan-Jyun Sun ◽  
Andrew M. Catherall ◽  
Sonia Pascoal ◽  
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett ◽  
Sara E. Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Reaction Norm ◽  
Ancestral Population ◽  
Adaptive Divergence ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Rapid Adaptation ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Genetic Accommodation ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

AbstractModels of ‘plasticity-first’ evolution are attractive because they explain the rapid evolution of new complex adaptations. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether plasticity can still facilitate rapid evolution when diverging populations are connected by gene flow. Here we show how plasticity has generated adaptive divergence in fecundity in wild populations of burying beetlesNicrophorus vespilloides, which are still connected by gene flow, which occupy distinct Cambridgeshire woodlands that are just 2.5km apart and which diverged from a common ancestral population c. 1000-4000 years ago. We show that adaptive divergence is duetothe coupling of an evolved increase in the elevation of the reaction norm linking clutch size to carrion size (i.e. genetic accommodation) with plastic secondary elimination of surplus offspring. Working in combination, these two processes have facilitated rapid adaptation to fine-scale environmental differences, despite ongoing gene flow.

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.

The ‘Widow Effect’ and its Consequences for Reproduction in Burying Beetles, Nicrophorus vespilloides (Coleoptera: Silphidae)

Ethology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (7) ◽  
pp. 553-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott K. Sakaluk ◽  
Anne-Katrin Eggert ◽  
Josef K. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

scholarly journals Starving the competition: a proximate cause of reproductive skew in burying beetles ( Nicrophorus vespilloides )

2008 ◽  
Vol 275 (1650) ◽  
pp. 2521-2528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Katrin Eggert ◽  
Tobias Otte ◽  
Josef K Müller
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Skew ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Proximate Cause ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

scholarly journals The evolution of a beneficial association between an animal and a microbial community

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Rebar ◽  
H. C. Leggett ◽  
S.M.L. Aspinall ◽  
A. Duarte ◽  
R.M. Kilner
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
The Body ◽  
Burying Beetles ◽  
Microbial Ecosystem ◽  
Germ Free ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides

ABSTRACTAnimals are now known to be intimately associated with microbial communities, some of which enhance animal fitness. Yet relatively little is known about how these beneficial associations initially arose. We investigated this problem with an experiment on burying beetles, Nicrophorus vespilloides, which breed on the body of a small dead vertebrate. We found that burying beetles breeding on germ-free mice produced smaller larvae, with lower fitness, than those breeding on conventional germ-laden mice. Thus, burying beetles gain benefits from the microbial community associated with their carrion breeding resource, because they lose fitness when this community is removed experimentally. Our experiment suggests that a symbiosis between an animal and a microbial community might begin as an adaptation to the microbial ecosystem in which the animal lives, even when these microbes exist outside the animal, are transiently associated with it at each generation and are not directly transmitted from parents to offspring.

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 Individual- and population-level drivers of consistent foraging success across environments

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lysanne Snijders ◽  
Ralf H. J. M. Kurvers ◽  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Indar W. Ramnarine ◽  
Jens Krause
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
The Individual

AbstractIndividual foraging is under strong natural selection. Yet, whether individuals differ consistently in their foraging success across environments, and which individual and population-level traits might drive such differences, is largely unknown. We addressed this question in a field experiment, conducting over 1,100 foraging trials with nine subpopulations of guppies, Poecilia reticulata, translocating them across environments in the wild. A-priori, we determined the individual social phenotypes. We show that individuals consistently differed in reaching food, but not control, patches across environments. Social individuals reached more food patches than less social ones and males reached more food patches than females. Overall, individuals were, however, more likely to join females at patches than males, which explains why individuals in subpopulations with relatively more females reached, on average, more food patches. Our results provide rare evidence for individual differences in foraging success across environments, driven by individual and population level (sex ratio) traits.

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