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Female Burying Beetles Benefit from Male Desertion: Sexual Conflict and Counter-Adaptation over Parental Investment

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  • Giuseppe Boncoraglio
  • Rebecca M Kilner

Abstract

Sexual conflict drives the coevolution of sexually antagonistic traits, such that an adaptation in one sex selects an opposing coevolutionary response from the other. Although many adaptations and counteradaptations have been identified in sexual conflict over mating interactions, few are known for sexual conflict over parental investment. Here we investigate a possible coevolutionary sequence triggered by mate desertion in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, where males commonly leave before their offspring reach independence. Rather than suffer fitness costs as a consequence, our data suggest that females rely on the male's absence to recoup some of the costs of larval care, presumably because they are then free to feed themselves on the carcass employed for breeding. Consequently, forcing males to stay until the larvae disperse reduces components of female fitness to a greater extent than caring for young singlehandedly. Therefore we suggest that females may have co-evolved to anticipate desertion by their partners so that they now benefit from the male's absence.

Suggested Citation

  • Giuseppe Boncoraglio & Rebecca M Kilner, 2012. "Female Burying Beetles Benefit from Male Desertion: Sexual Conflict and Counter-Adaptation over Parental Investment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(2), pages 1-4, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0031713
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031713
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Josef K. Müller & Veronika Braunisch & Wenbe Hwang & Anne-Katrin Eggert, 2007. "Alternative tactics and individual reproductive success in natural associations of the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 18(1), pages 196-203, January.
    2. Richard J.S. Ward & Sheena C. Cotter & Rebecca M. Kilner, 2009. "Current brood size and residual reproductive value predict offspring desertion in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 20(6), pages 1274-1281.
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