title: A limit on the extent to which increased egg size can compensate for a poor postnatal environment revealed experimentally in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides.
abstract: It is often assumed that there is a positive relationship between egg size and offspring fitness. However, recent studies have suggested that egg size has a greater effect on offspring fitness in low-quality environments than in high-quality environments. Such observations suggest that mothers may compensate for poor posthatching environments by increasing egg size. In this paper we test whether there is a limit on the extent to which increased egg size can compensate for the removal of posthatching parental care in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides. Previous experiments with N. vespilloides suggest that an increased egg size can compensate for a relatively poor environment after hatching. Here, we phenotypically engineered female N. vespilloides to produce large or small eggs by varying the amount of time they were allowed to feed on the carcass as larvae. We then tested whether differences between these groups in egg size translated into differences in larval performance in a harsh postnatal environment that excluded parental care. We found that females engineered to produce large eggs did not have higher breeding success, and nor did they produce larger larvae than females engineered to produce small eggs. These results suggest that there is a limit on the extent to which increased maternal investment in egg size can compensate for a poor posthatching environment. We discuss the implication of our results for a recent study showing that experimental N. vespilloides populations can adapt rapidly to the absence of posthatching parental care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EJ U.K; Department of Biology University of the South Sewanee Tennessee 37383.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schrader
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EJ U.K.
authors.forename: Rachel M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Crosby
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EJ U.K.
authors.forename: Aimee R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Hesketh
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EJ U.K.
authors.forename: Benjamin J M
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Jarrett
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EJ U.K.
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Kilner
keywords: Burying beetle; Nicrophorus vespilloides; egg size; parental care
references.citation: Evolution. 2003 May;57(5):1121-32
references.pmid: 12836828
references.citation: Evolution. 1999 Apr;53(2):552-560
references.pmid: 28565419
references.citation: Am Nat. 2015 May;185(5):610-9
references.pmid: 25905504
references.citation: Evolution. 2015 Apr;69(4):1077-84
references.pmid: 25648525
references.citation: Evolution. 1998 Apr;52(2):299-308
references.pmid: 28568322
references.citation: Evolution. 2006 Feb;60(2):348-61
references.pmid: 16610325
references.citation: Evolution. 1997 Oct;51(5):1352-1362
references.pmid: 28568644
references.citation: Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009 Apr 27;364(1520):1169-77
references.pmid: 19324619
references.citation: PLoS One. 2012;7(2):e31713
references.pmid: 22355390
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2013 Jun 19;280(1764):20131082
references.pmid: 23782888
references.citation: Behav Ecol Sociobiol. 2009 Sep;63(11):1659-1665
references.pmid: 19701482
references.citation: J Evol Biol. 2012 Sep;25(9):1815-22
references.pmid: 22775779
references.citation: Evolution. 1991 Aug;45(5):1162-1168
references.pmid: 28564166
references.citation: Am Nat. 2013 Jul;182(1):76-90
references.pmid: 23778228
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2013 Sep 07;280(1766):20131225
references.pmid: 23843390
references.citation: Science. 2007 Aug 17;317(5840):941-4
references.pmid: 17702942
references.citation: Am Nat. 2004 Jul;164(1):13-24
references.pmid: 15266367
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2008 Jan 7;275(1630):29-36
references.pmid: 17956851