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Paternity assurance by “helpful” males: adaptations to sperm competition in burying beetles

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Summary

Male burying beetles invest parentally by participating in the burial of a carcass and in provisioning and guarding the larvae that come to the carcass. Since most of the females arriving at a carcass have stored fertile sperm within their spermathecae, sperm transferred by such “helpful” males must compete with other males' ejaculates for the fertilization of the female's eggs. We showed that these males are able to achieve a high level of paternity (mean=92%). The mechanism they employ is a repeat-mating tactic, i.e., the female is mated very frequently shortly before and during oviposition. Repeated matings are essential for a high reliability of paternity, since single copulations result in the fertilization of only a very small proportion of the female's eggs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lehrstuhl für Evolutionsforschung der Universität, Universitätsstrasse, D-4800, Bielefeld, Germany

    J. K. Müller & Anne-Katrin Eggert

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  1. J. K. Müller
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  2. Anne-Katrin Eggert
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Müller, J.K., Eggert, AK. Paternity assurance by “helpful” males: adaptations to sperm competition in burying beetles. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 24, 245–249 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00295204

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00295204

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