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The effect of size and sex ratio experiences on reproductive competition in Nicrophorus vespilloides burying beetles in the wild
Male parents face a choice: should they invest more in caring for offspring or in attempting to mate with other females? The most profitable course depends on the intensity of competition for mates, which is likely to vary with the population sex ratio. However, the balance of pay‐offs may vary amon...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4785605/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26749372 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12803 |
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author | Hopwood, P. E. Moore, A. J. Tregenza, T. Royle, N. J. |
author_facet | Hopwood, P. E. Moore, A. J. Tregenza, T. Royle, N. J. |
author_sort | Hopwood, P. E. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Male parents face a choice: should they invest more in caring for offspring or in attempting to mate with other females? The most profitable course depends on the intensity of competition for mates, which is likely to vary with the population sex ratio. However, the balance of pay‐offs may vary among individual males depending on their competitive prowess or attractiveness. We tested the prediction that sex ratio and size of the resource holding male provide cues regarding the level of mating competition prior to breeding and therefore influence the duration of a male's biparental caring in association with a female. Male burying beetles, Nicrophorus vespilloides were reared, post‐eclosion, in groups that differed in sex ratio. Experimental males were subsequently translocated to the wild, provided with a breeding resource (carcass) and filmed. We found no evidence that sex ratio cues prior to breeding affected future parental care behaviour but males that experienced male‐biased sex ratios took longer to attract wild mating partners. Smaller males attracted a higher proportion of females than did larger males, securing significantly more monogamous breeding associations as a result. Smaller males thus avoided competitive male–male encounters more often than larger males. This has potential benefits for their female partners who avoid both intrasexual competition and direct costs of higher mating frequency associated with competing males. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4785605 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-47856052016-04-08 The effect of size and sex ratio experiences on reproductive competition in Nicrophorus vespilloides burying beetles in the wild Hopwood, P. E. Moore, A. J. Tregenza, T. Royle, N. J. J Evol Biol Research Papers Male parents face a choice: should they invest more in caring for offspring or in attempting to mate with other females? The most profitable course depends on the intensity of competition for mates, which is likely to vary with the population sex ratio. However, the balance of pay‐offs may vary among individual males depending on their competitive prowess or attractiveness. We tested the prediction that sex ratio and size of the resource holding male provide cues regarding the level of mating competition prior to breeding and therefore influence the duration of a male's biparental caring in association with a female. Male burying beetles, Nicrophorus vespilloides were reared, post‐eclosion, in groups that differed in sex ratio. Experimental males were subsequently translocated to the wild, provided with a breeding resource (carcass) and filmed. We found no evidence that sex ratio cues prior to breeding affected future parental care behaviour but males that experienced male‐biased sex ratios took longer to attract wild mating partners. Smaller males attracted a higher proportion of females than did larger males, securing significantly more monogamous breeding associations as a result. Smaller males thus avoided competitive male–male encounters more often than larger males. This has potential benefits for their female partners who avoid both intrasexual competition and direct costs of higher mating frequency associated with competing males. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016-01-08 2016-03 /pmc/articles/PMC4785605/ /pubmed/26749372 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12803 Text en © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society for Evolutionary Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Papers Hopwood, P. E. Moore, A. J. Tregenza, T. Royle, N. J. The effect of size and sex ratio experiences on reproductive competition in Nicrophorus vespilloides burying beetles in the wild |
title | The effect of size and sex ratio experiences on reproductive competition in Nicrophorus vespilloides burying beetles in the wild |
title_full | The effect of size and sex ratio experiences on reproductive competition in Nicrophorus vespilloides burying beetles in the wild |
title_fullStr | The effect of size and sex ratio experiences on reproductive competition in Nicrophorus vespilloides burying beetles in the wild |
title_full_unstemmed | The effect of size and sex ratio experiences on reproductive competition in Nicrophorus vespilloides burying beetles in the wild |
title_short | The effect of size and sex ratio experiences on reproductive competition in Nicrophorus vespilloides burying beetles in the wild |
title_sort | effect of size and sex ratio experiences on reproductive competition in nicrophorus vespilloides burying beetles in the wild |
topic | Research Papers |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4785605/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26749372 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12803 |
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