Male mating success and paternal care in Nicrophorus vespilloides (Coleoptera: Silphidae)

Summary

If no female is present, male burying beetles Nicrophorus vespilloides (Coleoptera: Silphidae) co-operate in the burial of a corpse. Once a female has arrived, the males fight with one another. The defeated male stays near the corpse and to copulate with the female. Laboratory experiments using sterilised males showed that the defeated male was able sometimes to father some of the offspring raised on the corpse. Male N. vespilloides almost always participate in defence and feeding of the brood. This is not affected by the size of the male. Males quickly leave or are driven from 5 g corpses. Males feed the larvae as often as females do, and larvae raised by males alone are not significantly different in weight from larvae raised by females alone or by both parents. Males which cared for a succession of broods in the laboratory did not differ significantly in median lifespan from males which were removed from their corpses after eggs had been laid. Non-caring males weighed significantly more than caring males over a sequence of corpses, but the caring males did not differ significantly in weight from non-breeding controls.