Maternal care provides antifungal protection to eggs in the European earwig

Many insects raise their offspring on organic substrates or in the soil where microorganisms are abundant. Microbes may pose a serious threat to offspring development and survival by either decomposing food resources or directly infecting the offspring. Selection to cope with these effects may favor social defenses, for example, through forms of parental care that can limit or eliminate these threats to offspring fitness. In this study, we experimentally tested if maternal egg attendance in the European earwig Forficula auricularia has a function as a social defense against mold infection of eggs by manipulating exposure of eggs to mold spores and the presence of the mother in a fully facto…