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Beyond Cuticular Hydrocarbons: Chemically Mediated Mate Recognition in the Subsocial Burying Beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides

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Abstract

Burying beetles have fascinated scientists for centuries due to their elaborate form of biparental care that includes the burial and defense of a vertebrate carcass, as well as the subsequent feeding of the larvae. However, besides extensive research on burying beetles, one fundamental question has yet to be answered: what cues do males use to discriminate between the sexes? Here, we show in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides that cuticular lipids trigger male mating behavior. Previous chemical analyses have revealed sex differences in cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) composition; however, in the current study, fractionated-guided bioassay showed that cuticular lipids, other than CHCs, elicit copulation. Chemical analyses of the behaviorally active fraction revealed 17 compounds, mainly aldehydes and fatty acid esters, with small quantitative but no qualitative differences between the sexes. Supplementation of males with hexadecanal, the compound contributing most to the statistical separation of the chemical profiles of males and females, did not trigger copulation attempts by males. Therefore, a possible explanation is that the whole profile of polar lipids mediates sex recognition in N. vespilloides.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to SS (STE 1874/3-1) and JS (STO 966/2-1).

(size exclusion chromatography 2) fraction of male and female Nicrophorus vespilloides.

Author Contributions

SS conceived the study; JS and SS designed the experiments; EK, MP, and KCE performed the behavioural experiments; JS and SS performed the chemical analyses; SS and JS wrote the manuscript with contributions of MA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, 89081, Ulm, Germany

    Eva M. Keppner, Madlen Prang, Katharina C. Engel, Manfred Ayasse & Sandra Steiger

  2. Institute of for Zoology, University of Regensburg, 93053, Regensburg, Germany

    Johannes Stökl

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  1. Eva M. Keppner
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  2. Madlen Prang
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  3. Katharina C. Engel
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  4. Manfred Ayasse
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  5. Johannes Stökl
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Correspondence to Johannes Stökl or Sandra Steiger.

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Keppner, E.M., Prang, M., Engel, K.C. et al. Beyond Cuticular Hydrocarbons: Chemically Mediated Mate Recognition in the Subsocial Burying Beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides . J Chem Ecol 43, 84–93 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-016-0806-8

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