The benefit of paternal assistance in intra- and interspecific competition for the burying beetle,Nicrophorus defodiens

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Burying beetles, Nicrophorus spp., bury small carcasses as food for their young. Both males and females provide extensive parental care and the major advantage of paternal assistance is to reduce the probability that the carcass will be usurped by a conspecific competitor and the brood killed. Whereas male assistance in N. defodiens significantly reduces the probability of usurpation by a conspecific, it is ineffective against larger congeneric intruders. Male N. defodiens provide shorter parental care than do males of the larger, N. orbicollis, whose assistance is effective against all burying beetles in preventing usurpation. I compare the duration of paternal care in this New Hampshire population of N. defodiens and one in Michigan and argue that this behavior is shaped by the competitive environment.