title: Effects of age and experience on contest behavior in the burying beetle,Nicrophorus vespilloides.
abstract: Contest behavior forms an important part of reproductive investment. Life-history theory predicts that as individuals age and their residual reproductive value decreases, they should increase investment in contest behavior. However, other factors such as social experience may also be important in determining age-related variation in contest behavior. To understand how selection acts on contest behavior over an individual's lifetime, it is therefore important to tease apart the effects of age per se from other factors that may vary with age. Here, we independently manipulate male age and social experience to examine their effects on male contest behavior in the burying beetleNicrophorus vespilloides. We found that social experience, but not age, influenced male contest behavior but that these changes in behavior did not alter contest outcomes. Male size (relative to his opponent) was overwhelmingly the most important factor determining contest outcome. Our results suggest that in systems with high variation in fighting ability among males, there may be little opportunity for selection to act on factors that influence contest outcomes by altering motivation to win.
authors.affiliation: aCentre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus , Treliever Road, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9EZ , UK and.
authors.forename: Victoria E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Division of Evolution, Ecology and Genetics, Research School of Biology , The Australian National University, Acton, ACT 0200 , Australia.
authors.forename: Megan L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Head
authors.affiliation: aCentre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus , Treliever Road, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9EZ , UK and.
authors.forename: Mauricio J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.affiliation: aCentre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus , Treliever Road, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9EZ , UK and.
authors.forename: Nick J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Royle
keywords: Nicrophorus vespilloides; age; contest behavior; fighting; male competition; social experience; terminal investment; winner–loser effect.