Previous breeding success and carrion substrate together influence subsequent carrion choice by adult Nicrophorus vespilloides

Abstract

Insects can adjust their behaviour in relation to experience in a wide range of contexts including foraging, mate selection, and choice of oviposition site. Here we investigate whether burying beetles modulate their choice of carrion in relation to the outcome of their past breeding experience. Burying beetles require small vertebrate carrion to reproduce. Beetle parents convert carrion into an edible nursery for their larvae, whom they typically care for throughout larval development. We tested whether a beetles past breeding experience influenced its subsequent choice of carrion, when presented simultaneously with either a dead mouse or a dead chick. We found that both male and female beetles favoured the same carrion as used in their first breeding attempt - but only if they had produced many larvae and only if they had previously bred on a mouse. Beetles that had produced fewer larvae on a dead mouse switched to favouring dead chicks in their second breeding attempt. Those that had bred on a dead chick chose carrion at random subsequently, regardless of their previous breeding success. Our general conclusion is that burying beetles can integrate different sources of information about their past breeding experience with current cues when selecting carrion for reproduction.