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

Overview

Journal J Chem Ecol

Publisher Springer

Specialties Chemistry
Environmental Health

Date 2016 Dec 29

PMID 28028746

Citations 7

Authors

Eva M Keppner

Madlen Prang

Katharina C Engel

Manfred Ayasse

Johannes Stokl

Sandra Steiger

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

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.

Citing Articles

The scent of offspring: chemical profiles of larvae change during development and affect parental behavior in a burying beetle.

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Flexible females: nutritional state influences biparental cooperation in a burying beetle.

Lambert G, Smiseth P Behav Ecol. 2024; 35(2):arae009.

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Chemosensory input from mouthparts in response to sexually dimorphic cuticular wax mediates male sexual discrimination in Galerucella grisescens (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).

Chiba Y, Yosano S, Hori M Sci Rep. 2023; 13(1):21754.

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Reproductives signature revealed by protein profiling and behavioral bioassays in termite.

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Parent-offspring conflict and its outcome under uni-and biparental care.

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