0000000001308508
AUTHOR
Janina M. C. Diehl
Growing up with feces: benefits of allo-coprophagy in families of the European earwig
International audience
When earwig mothers do not care to share: Parent–offspring competition and the evolution of family life
Kin competition often reduces – and sometimes entirely negates – the benefits of cooperation among family members. Surprisingly, the impact of kin competition on the fitness effects of family life only received close scrutiny in studies on sibling rivalry, whereas the possibility of parent–offspring competition has attracted much less attention. As a consequence, it remains unclear whether and how parent–offspring competition could have affected the early evolution of parental care and family life. Here, we examined the occurrence and consequences of parent–offspring competition over food access in the European earwig Forficula auricularia, an insect with facultative family life reminiscent…
Surrounding pathogens shape maternal egg care but not egg production in the European earwig
Earwig mothers increase egg care when pathogens are present in the nest, but do not adapt the quantity and quality of their eggs accordingly. Our results confirm that parents can both detect the presence of microbial pathogens in their nesting area and develop pre-hatching behavioral strategies to reduce the associated risk of pathogen infection. These findings overall emphasize the central importance of pathogens in the evolution of parental care in animals.Twitter: @JMeunierEarwig
Data from: Growing up with feces: benefits of allo-coprophagy in families of the European earwig
An important issue in the evolution of group living is the risk of pathogen and predator exposure entailed by the inherent accumulation of feces within a nesting site. While many group living species limit this risk by cleaning the nest, others do not, raising questions about the benefits of maintaining feces in the nest and their importance in social evolution. Here, we investigated whether one of these benefits could be mediated by coprophagy in families of the European earwig, Forficula auricularia. In this insect species, mothers and mobile juveniles (nymphs) line their nests with feces and consume them. In a first experiment, we tested whether access to feces produced by either nymphs …
Data from: When earwig mothers do not care to share: parent-offspring competition and the evolution of family life
1. Kin competition often reduces – and sometimes entirely negates – the benefits of cooperation among relatives, and hence is often regarded as central process in social evolution. Surprisingly, however, our understanding of the role of kin competition in the evolution of family life remains fragmentary, despite the close scrutiny it received in studies on sibling rivarly. This is because much less attention has been given to local competition between parents and their offspring, and its potential impact on the early evolution of parental care and family life. 2. Here, we examined mother-offspring competition over food access in the European earwig Forficula auricularia, an insect with facu…