Fulltext

Differential effects of offspring condition-dependent signals on maternal care regulation in the European earwig

Mas, Flore ; Kölliker, Mathias

In: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2011, vol. 65, no. 2, p. 341-349

Ajouter à la liste personnelle
    Titre
    • Differential effects of offspring condition-dependent signals on maternal care regulation in the European earwig
    Auteur
    • Mas, Flore. Zoological Institute, Evolutionary Biology, University of Basel, Vesalgasse 1, 4051, Basel, Switzerland
    • Kölliker, Mathias. Zoological Institute, Evolutionary Biology, University of Basel, Vesalgasse 1, 4051, Basel, Switzerland
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Langue
    • Anglais
    Publié dans
    • Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2011, vol. 65, no. 2, p. 341-349. Springer-Verlag
    Autre version électronique
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:318626
    Summary
    Parent-offspring conflict theory predicts the evolution of offspring solicitation signals that can influence the amount and/or the duration of parental investment. Short-term effects of offspring solicitation signals on parental food provisioning have been widely demonstrated, but persistent effects of offspring signals on the maintenance of parental care have been rarely studied. Also, the relation between the amount of care provided to the brood and how it is distributed among individual offspring within a brood is not well enough understood. Here, we investigated in the European earwig (Forficula auricularia) the effects of offspring condition-dependent chemical signals on the maintenance of maternal care among broods and the distribution of maternal food within broods. Mothers were isolated from their brood for 3days and continuously exposed to chemical signals extracted from broods of experimentally manipulated nutritional state. After re-introducing mothers to their brood, a range of maternal behaviours were quantified. We found that earwig mothers groomed their offspring significantly more after exposure to chemical extract from high-food brood in comparison with mothers exposed to extract from low-food brood, which in turn displayed significantly more aggressive behaviour. Furthermore, we manipulated offspring individual nutritional condition within the brood to evaluate the effect of offspring state on the within-brood food distribution. Within broods, poorly fed individuals received significantly more food than well-fed individuals, probably due to scramble competition. These results show that earwig nymphs express multi-component condition-dependent signals and behaviours differentially affecting maternal care provisioned to the brood and the distribution of care within broods