Unbalanced biparental care during colony foundation in two subterranean termites.

ABSTRACT: Parental care is a major component of reproduction in social organisms, particularly during the foundation steps. Because investment into parental care is often costly, each parent is predicted to maximize its fitness by providing less care than its partner. However, this sexual conflict is expected to be low in species with lifelong monogamy, because the fitness of each parent is typically tied to the other's input. Somewhat surprisingly, the outcomes of this tug-of-war between maternal and paternal investments have received important attention in vertebrate species, but remain less known in invertebrates. In this study, we investigated how queens and kings share their investment into parental care and other social interactions during colony foundation in two termites with lifelong monoga

SUBMITTER: Brossette L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6342128 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature