title: Difference in parenting in two species of burying beetle,Nicrophorus orbicollisandNicrophorus vespilloides.
abstract: Burying beetles (Nicrophorus) are model parents among insects, with all studied species known to regurgitate flesh from vertebrate carcasses to their offspring. However, most studies focus on a very few species, yet the interpretation of the function and importance of care is typically generalized to all burying beetles. Here we characterize subtle variation within and between individuals and sexes, and how this variation differs between two species of burying beetle. We find thatNicrophorus orbicollisexhibits low variance, with a normal distribution of parental care provided during peak care periods. InN. vespilloides, however, the distribution is more uniform as values of care are spread across the possible phenotypic spectrum. This suggests that there is stabilizing selection on care inN. orbicollis, but relaxed or disruptive selection inN. vespilloides. Although repeatability was similar between both species, transitions from other care behaviors into feeding were more common inN. orbicollisthanN. vespilloides. Thus, while parenting is coarsely similar across the genus, variation in its expression should not be extrapolated to allNicrophorus. We suggest that subtle variation both within and among species merits greater attention, and could inform us about the factors that lead to different distributions of care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, 120 East Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
authors.forename: Kyle M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Benowitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, 120 East Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: McKinney
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, 120 East Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
authors.forename: Allen J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Moore
keywords: Coleoptera; behavioral transitionss; repeatability; social behavior; variance