Does it Pay to Care?: Exploring the Costs and Benefits of Parental Care in the Hibiscus Harlequin Bug Tectocoris diophthalmus (Heteroptera: Scutelleridae)

Knowledge of the selective pressures favouring parental care can inform our understanding of the evolutionary origins and transitions of sociality in insects. Here, we report upon investigations designed to estimate the costs and benefits of parental care in the egg‐guarding hibiscus harlequin bug Tectocoris diophthalmus (Heteroptera: Scutelleridae). We found that the presence of a guarding female had no effect on hatching success under benign laboratory conditions. In the wild, however, guarding decreased the likelihood of total clutch failure, and produced a fourfold greater egg‐hatching rate relative to unguarded clutches. Females guarded against generalist invertebrate egg predators, including conspecific nymphs, but were ineffective against hymenopteran egg parasitoids. Females continued to feed during the guarding period and exhibited no signs of weight loss or increased mortality due to this behaviour. We did not observe the production of subsequent clutches in any experimental females; therefore, the lifetime fecundity costs of providing parental care in T. diophthalmus remain indeterminate. Overall, maternal egg guarding appears to function as a relatively low cost–low benefit strategy that increases hatching success by protecting against predation – but not parasitism.     

Reduction of oviposition time and enhanced larval feeding: two potential benefits of aggregative oviposition for the viburnum leaf beetle

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Maternal attendance and the maintenance of family groups in common earwigs (Forficula auricularia): a field experiment

Abstract.  1. Understanding the evolution of subsocial behaviour and parental care requires experimental tests of the functional significance of such behaviours and the role of tending parents in the maintenance of family groups. Studies in subsocial insects addressing these issues experimentally and in the field are still relatively rare.
2. In such a field experiment, it is demonstrated here that the presence of tending females enhances the maintenance of family groups in common earwigs, Forficula auricularia (Dermaptera; Forficulidae). Experimental removal of tending mothers resulted in substantially decreased recovery of occupied nest burrows and larvae. This effect may have been because of decreased survival among experimental larvae, although a possible role for enhanced larval dispersal could not be fully ruled out.
3. Experimental (motherless) larvae were partly observed in family groups with a tending female, in both experimental and control nest burrows, suggesting that these larvae had been adopted by family groups moving to new nest burrows, and/or that experimental larvae may have actively joined other family groups.
4. This study demonstrates under field conditions the functional importance of maternal attendance for the maintenance of family groups in common earwigs, and suggests that adoption and clutch-joining are factors affecting the social structure of this species.     

Pupal cell-building behavior in passalid beetles (Coleoptera: Passalidae)

In passalids, metamorphosis takes place inside pupal cells which are built by adults piling detritus on the pupa until it is completely covered by a cell. The results reported in this paper show the significance of an olfactory stimulus in the release of this behavior. Adults do not differentiate conspecific pupae originating from their own or other nests for the construction of pupal cells; however, they do not build these cells for heterospecific pupae. It was not possible to demonstrate significant differences between males and females with regard to the presentation of this behavior, but differences were found between young and mature adults. The former require greater stimulation and are less efficient in the construction of cells than the latter. Nevertheless, all adults, including very young ones, can perform the behavior. It was also found that, under laboratory conditions, metamorphosis is normally developed in the absence of pupal cells. Some hypotheses about the possible function of these cells are discussed.     

First record of habitat of Daulocoris formosanus (Hemiptera: Aradidae): Colonies discovered in nests of Salganea taiwanensis ryukyuanus (Dictyoptera: Blaberidae)

We collected colonies of Daulocoris formosanus from nests of the subsocial wood‐feeding cockroach Salganea taiwanensis ryukyuanus for the first time. To understand the ecology of D. formosanus, we observed and characterized their behavior in a laboratory setting. We provide the first detailed record of the habitat, colony structure and feeding behavior of D. formosanus.     

Maternal care and subsocial behaviour in spiders

While most spiders are solitary and opportunistically cannibalistic, a variety of social organisations has evolved in a minority of spider species. One form of social organisation is subsociality, in which siblings remain together with their parent for some period of time but disperse prior to independent reproduction. We review the literature on subsocial and maternal behaviour in spiders to highlight areas in which subsocial spiders have informed our understanding of social evolution and to identify promising areas of future research. We show that subsocial behaviour has evolved independently at least 18 times in spiders, across a wide phylogenetic distribution. Subsocial behaviour is diverse in terms of the form of care provided by the mother, the duration of care and sibling association, the degree of interaction and cooperation among siblings, and the use of vibratory and chemical communication. Subsocial spiders are useful model organisms to study various topics in ecology, such as kin recognition and the evolution of cheating and its impact on societies. Further, why social behaviour evolved in some lineages and not others is currently a topic of debate in behavioural ecology, and we argue that spiders offer an opportunity to untangle the ecological causes of parental care, which forms the basis of many other animal societies.     

Systematics of the Madagascar Anelosimus spiders: remarkable local richness and endemism,and dual colonization from the Americas

Despite the alarming rates of deforestation and forest fragmentation, Madagascar still harbors extraordinary biodiversity. However, in many arthropod groups, such as spiders, this biodiversity remains mostly unexplored and undescribed. The first subsocial Madagascan species of the theridiid spider genus Anelosimus were described in 2005 when six new species were found to coexist in the Périnet forest fragment within Andasibe-Mantadia NP. However, this discovery was based only on a few specimens and the extent of this Madagascan radiation has remained unknown. We here report on a thorough survey of >350 colonies from Périnet, and three pilot surveys into additional Madagascar forests (Ambohitantely, Ranamofana, and Montagne d’Ambre). The morphological, molecular and natural history data from these surveys facilitated a revised taxonomy and phylogenetic hypothesis of Madagascan Anelosimus. This subsocial clade currently comprises six previously known (Anelosimus andasibe Agnarsson & Kuntner, 2005, Anelosimus may Agnarsson, 2005, Anelosimus nazariani Agnarsson & Kuntner, 2005, Anelosimus sallee Agnarsson & Kuntner, 2005, Anelosimus salut Agnarsson & Kuntner, 2005, Anelosimus vondrona Agnarsson & Kuntner, 2005) and 10 new species: Anelosimus ata sp. n., Anelosimus buffoni sp. n., Anelosimus darwini sp. n., Anelosimus hookeri sp. n., Anelosimus huxleyi sp. n., Anelosimus lamarcki sp. n., Anelosimus moramora sp. n., Anelosimus tita sp. n., Anelosimus torfi sp. n., Anelosimus wallacei sp. n.. With the exception of Anelosimus may and Anelosimus vondrona, all other species appear to be single forest endemics. While additional sampling is necessary, these data imply a much higher local richness and endemism in Madagascan forests than in any other comparable area globally. The phylogenetic results establish a sister clade relationship between the subsocial Anelosimus in Madagascar and the American ‘eximius group’, and between the solitary Anelosimus decaryi on Madagascar and a solitary American clade. These findings imply duplicate colonizations from America, an otherwise rare biogeographical pattern, calling for more detailed investigation of Anelosimus biogeography.     

Subsociality in halictine bees

To look for the occurrence and the significance of brood care in social evolution, I reared six eusocial halictine bee species in laboratory cages enabling the observation of intranest behaviour: Lasioglossum (Evylaeus) laticeps, L. (E.) pauxillum, L. (E.) nigripes, L. (E.) euboeensis, Halictus (Halictus) scabiosae and L. (E.) fulvicorne. All of them were subsocial, each mother caring for her brood. Brood cells were sealed after oviposition with earthen plugs; they were then reopened, visited and closed again. These observations plus the reports in the literature on eleven eusocial species indicate that seventeen species of eusocial halictine bees provide parental care, i.e. are subsocial. Brood care, subsociality, is strongly associated with eusociality. To study reversal from eusociality to subsociality, I have reared the non-eusocial form of two species within which there are or have been eusocial forms: Halictus (H.) rubicundus and Lasioglossum (E.) fratellum. They are secondarily solitary, having lost worker brood. However, both species still show brood care. This suggests that in transitions to eusociality, brood care antedated eusociality. To further examine this issue I reared two truly solitary species that are not derived from eusocial ancestors: Lasioglossum (E.) villosulum and L. (L.) quadrinotatum. Unlike secondarily solitary species, females of both these species close their brood cells after oviposition and ignore their progeny thereafter. This association strongly suggests that the subsocial route with maternal brood care is the route to eusociality in halictine bees.     

Provisioning control during maternal care by the earwig Anisolabis maritima (Dermaptera: Anisolabididae): Do mothers adjust provisioning according to offspring need?

Provisioning offspring is an important form of parental care for the improvement of offspring survival and growth. Because provisioning can be costly for parents, parents may change their investment levels in response to offspring need and begging signals. Anisolabis maritima is a cosmopolitan species of earwig that shows subsocial behavior. Females progressively provision their young in soil burrows. The present study investigated whether A. maritima mothers carry food to the nest for their offspring (nymphs) and whether the mothers adjust the amount of food carried to the burrow according to the degree of the nymphs’ hunger. Through laboratory experiments, I found that mothers carried food to sites where more nymphs were present, and more food to broods of more hungry nymphs. These results have revealed that mothers recognize the presence of offspring and the degree of their hunger. This study, therefore, indicates the presence of offspring begging signals in A. maritima.