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opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

The effect of Israeli acute paralysis infection on honey bee brood care behavior

To protect themselves from communicable diseases, social insects utilize social immunity—behavioral, phsyiological, and organizational means to combat disease transmission and severity. Within a honey bee colony, larvae are visited thousands of times by nurse bees, representing a prime environment for pathogen transmission. We investigated a potential social immune response to Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) infection in brood care, testing the hypotheses that bees will respond with behaviors that result in reduced brood care, or that infection results in elevated brood care as a virus-driven mechanism to increase transmission. We tested for group-level effects by comparing three different social environments in which 0%, 50%, or 100% of bees were experimentally infected with IAPV. We investigated individual-level effects by comparing exposed bees to unexposed bees within the mixed-exposure treatment group. We found no evidence for a social immune response at the group level; however, individually, exposed bees interacted with the larva more frequently than their unexposed nestmates. While this could increase virus transmission from adults to larvae, it could also represent a hygienic response to increase grooming when an infection is detected. Together, our findings underline the complexity of disease dynamics in complex social animal systems.

opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

Brood parasites that care: alternative nesting tactics in a subsocial wasp

<div> Hosts and brood parasites are a classic example of conflict. Parasites typically provide no offspring care after laying eggs, imposing costs on hosts. Female subsocial wasps, Ammophila pubescens, alternated between initiating their own nests and an 'intruder' tactic of replacing eggs in nests of unrelated conspecifics. Hosts could respond by substituting new eggs of their own, with up to eight reciprocal replacements. Remarkably, intruders usually provisioned offspring in host nests, often alongside hosts. We used field data to investigate why intruders provision and to understand the basis of interactions. We found that intruders could not increase their fitness payoffs by using the typical brood parasite tactic of not provisioning offspring. Intruders using the typical tactic would benefit when hosts provisioned in their stead, but their offspring would starve when hosts failed to provision. Although some hosts obtained positive payoffs when intruders mistakenly provisioned their offspring, on average utilizing a conspecific nest represents parasitism: hosts pay costs while intruders benefit. Both females used the same tactic of egg replacement, but intruders more often laid the final egg. Selection should favour better discrimination of offspring, which could lead to repeated cycles of costly egg replacement. </div>

publicJan 2024View details →

The effect of Israeli acute paralysis infection on honey bee brood care behavior

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publicJun 2023View details →

Brood parasites that care: alternative nesting tactics in a subsocial wasp

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opencc-zeroMar 2020View details →

Contribution of males to brood care can compensate for their food consumption from a shared resource

The sharing of the same food source among parents and offspring can be a driver of the evolution of family life and parental care. However, if all family members desire the same meal, competitive situations can arise, especially if resource depletion is likely. When food is shared for reproduction and the raising of offspring, parents have to decide whether they should invest in self-maintenance or in their offspring and it is not entirely clear how these two strategies are balanced. In the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, parents care for their offspring either bi- or uniparentally at a vertebrate carcass as the sole food source. The question of whether biparental care in this species offers the offspring a better environment for development compared with uniparental care has been the subject of some debate. We tested the hypothesis that male contribution to biparental brood care has a beneficial effect on offspring fitness but that this effect can be masked because the male also feeds from the shared resource. We show that a mouse carcass prepared by two Nicrophorus beetles is lighter compared with a carcass prepared by a single female beetle at the start of larval hatching and provisioning. This difference in carcass mass can influence offspring fitness when food availability is limited, supporting our hypothesis. Our results provide new insights into the possible evolutionary pathway of biparental care in this species of burying beetles.

opencc-zeroMay 2023View details →

Data from: Brood size, food availability, and body size affects male care decisions and offspring performance

Parental care strategies do not only vary greatly across species, but also within species, there can be substantial between- and within-individual variation in parental care behaviour. To better understand the evolution of care strategies, it is crucial to determine how and when parents modify their behaviour in response to internal as well as environmental factors. Here, we investigated the effect of brood size, resource size and an individual's quality on care strategies of uniparental males and examined the downstream consequences on offspring performance in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. Burying beetles breed on small vertebrate cadavers and, on average, males invest much less in care than females. Nevertheless, we found that uniparentally caring males were responsive to their social and non-social environment and adjusted the amount as well as the type of care to the size of the brood, the size of the cadaver and their own body size. Additionally, we show that the care strategies affected offspring performance. Specifically, males that cared longer had larger and more surviving larvae. Our results add to our understanding of plastic parenting strategies by showing that even the sex that provides less care can evolve a very flexible care behaviour.

publicMay 2023View details →

Data from: Brood size, food availability, and body size affects male care decisions and offspring performance

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publicAug 2025View details →

Parental effort in warming young: A neglected component of life history strategies influenced by nest structure, brood size, body mass, and bi-parental care

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publicMar 2020View details →

Contribution of males to brood care can compensate for their food consumption from a shared resource

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Fig. 8 in Study on behavioural ecology of Ditomus calydonius Rossi, 1790 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Ditomina), a strictly granivorous ground beetle with brood care

Fig. 8. Phenogram of Ditomus calydonius showing the new generation arousal and maturation level extimated by integument pigmentation. Рис. 8. Фенограмма, демонстрируюЩаЯ сроки поЯвлениЯ и соЗреваниЯ новой генерации D. calydonius, исходЯ иЗ степени пигментации покровов.

Fig. 5 in Study on behavioural ecology of Ditomus calydonius Rossi, 1790 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Ditomina), a strictly granivorous ground beetle with brood care

Fig. 5. Ditomus activity density (individuals/trap in the standard period of 10d) plotted against clay-in-the-soil-classes adopted in this study and canopy covering (%). Note that Ditomus populations has been recorded by pitfall trapping only in class 5 and 6, class 7 belongs to sodium chloride "blue clays" where Daucus plants show very little density. Рис. 5. ДинамическаЯ плотность D. calydonius (особей / 10 ловуШко-суток) в Зависимости от типа почвы по составу глин и проективного покрытиЯ в % (обратите внимание, что популЯции D. calydonius регистрировались почвеными ловуШками только на почвах 5 и 6 классов, почвы 7 класса содержат хлоридно- натриевые «голубые глины», на которых растениЯ Daucus имеют очень ниЗкую плотность).

Fig. 12. A in Study on behavioural ecology of Ditomus calydonius Rossi, 1790 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Ditomina), a strictly granivorous ground beetle with brood care

Fig. 12. A male of Ditomus calydonius on a Daucus inflorescence, showing the typical feeding position, i. e. holding a seed between the forelegs. Рис. 12. Самец D. calydonius на соцветии Daucus в типичной поЗе в момент питаниЯ — держит семЯ между передними лапками.

Figs 3–4 in Study on behavioural ecology of Ditomus calydonius Rossi, 1790 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Ditomina), a strictly granivorous ground beetle with brood care

Figs 3–4. The study area: 3 — area Ar4 at Arcavacata seen from below (S zone), where the Daucus plants were still flowering (photo at end of July 1992); 4 — the four zones of Daucus development (C, N, S, O) corresponding to patches of maximum Daucus plant density (grey); A indicates the point of microclimate measurements; the star the position of the only nest-site found. Рис. 3–4. МодельнаЯ плоЩадка: 3 — плоЩадка Ar4 в Аркаваката при виде сниЗу (Зона S) с еЩё цветуЩими растениЯми Daucus carota (конец июлЯ 1992 г.); 4 — четыре Зоны раЗвитиЯ Daucus (C, N, S, O), соответствуюЩие участкам с максимальной плотностью (серый цвет) растений; А — точка иЗмерениЯ микроклиматических параметров, ЗвёЗдочка — положение единственного найденного гнеЗда.

Fig. 11 in Study on behavioural ecology of Ditomus calydonius Rossi, 1790 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Ditomina), a strictly granivorous ground beetle with brood care

Fig. 11. Profile of the nest found at August, 21, 1992 in the C zone. All the specimens found are represented in their own position. (Original drawing by dr. Erminio Rocca). Рис. 11. Профиль гнеЗда D. calydonius, найденного 21 августа 1992 г. в Зоне C (все ЭкЗемплЯры представлены на месте обнаружениЯ; оригинальный рисунок доктора Эрминио Рокка).

Fig. 7 in Study on behavioural ecology of Ditomus calydonius Rossi, 1790 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Ditomina), a strictly granivorous ground beetle with brood care

Fig. 7. Sex ratio of foraging population during the surface activity period. Right ordinates: temperature at 1 cm from the soil. Dashed line indicates the mean humidity, the continuous one the mean temperature observed in the first four hours of the night (mean of the recordings made every fourth day during the counts of foraging individuals). Рис. 7. СоотноШение полов в популЯции D. calydonius в период фуражировки по данным напочвенной активности (правые ординаты — температура воЗдуха в 1 см от поверхности почвы (t.) и относительнаЯ влажность воЗдуха (r.h.); mean r.h. — среднЯЯ относительнаЯ влажность воЗдуха, mean temp. — среднЯЯ температура воЗдуха, наблюдаемые в первые четыре часа ночи; средние ЗначениЯ рассчитаны по реЗультатам иЗмерений в каждый четвёртый день при подсчёте кормЯЩихсЯ особей).

Fig. 6 in Study on behavioural ecology of Ditomus calydonius Rossi, 1790 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Ditomina), a strictly granivorous ground beetle with brood care

Fig. 6. Annual phenogram against temperatures of Ditomus population, counted as individuals active on Daucus umbellas every fourth day. Total data from the entire study area. Left ordinate: Maximum, mean and minimum temparature recorded at 1 cm from the soil surface. Рис. 6. ГодоваЯ фенограмма популЯции D. calydonius (суммарные данные длЯ всего района исследований), составленнаЯ по реЗультатам учётов жуков (раЗ в четырЯ днЯ), активных на Зонтиках Daucus (леваЯ ордината — максимальнаЯ, среднЯЯ и минимальнаЯ температура воЗдуха, ЗарегистрированнаЯ на расстоЯнии 1 см от поверхности почвы).