Changing dominant–subordinate relationships during carcass preparation between burying beetle species (Nicrophorus: Silphidae: Coleoptera)

I studied the influence of carrion burial on the interaction between Nicrophorus quadripunctatus and Nicrophorus vespilloides. In the preburial phase, N. quadripunctatus, the smaller species, occupied more carcasses than N. vespilloides, the larger species, when both species were allowed to compete for mouse carcasses. However, after carcasses were buried, N. vespilloides was more successful in protecting those it had buried, and more successful in intruding on carcasses buried by N. quadripunctatus. Direct observation supported these findings. These results may suggest that N. vespilloides is cleptoparasitic on N. quadripunctatus for carrion burial. Received: March 25, 1999 / Accepted: August 31, 1999