From facultative to obligatory parental care: Interspecific variation in offspring dependency on post-hatching care in burying beetles.

ABSTRACT: Studies on the evolution of parental care have focused primarily on the costs and benefits of parental care and the life-history attributes that favour it. However, once care evolves, offspring in some taxa appear to become increasingly dependent on their parents. Although offspring dependency is a central theme in family life, the evolutionary dynamics leading to it are not fully understood. Beetles of the genus Nicrophorus are well known for their elaborate biparental care, including provisioning of their young. By manipulating the occurrence of pre- or post-hatching care, we show that the offspring of three burying beetle species, N. orbicollis, N. pustulatus, and N. vespilloides, show striking variation in their reliance on parental care. Our results demonstrate that this variation wit

SUBMITTER: Capodeanu-Nagler A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4932505 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature