We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Infanticidal Behavior in the Subsocial Beetle Odontotaenius disjunctus (Illiger) (Coleoptera: Passalidae).
- Authors
Norman Fashing
- Abstract
Abstract  Infanticide, the killing of young, reproductively immature individuals of the perpetratorâs same species, has many interesting implications for reproductive fitness. Here we provide the first experimental description of infanticidal behavior in the passalid beetle Odontotaenius disjunctus (Illiger). To test our hypothesis that infanticide is triggered by the takeover of burrows by adults that had yet to reproduce in the mating season, we measured the mortality of larvae when housed with adults that were reproducing or had not yet reproduced. A significantly higher mortality was observed in larvae housed with adults that had not reproduced than when housed with their own parent or with unrelated reproducing adults. Infanticidal behavior of O. disjunctus is thought to result from the reproductive advantage obtained by taking over an existing burrow and thereby securing one with high food resource quality.
- Subjects
BEETLES; PASSALIDAE; INFANTICIDE; BEHAVIOR
- Publication
Journal of Insect Behavior, 2007, Vol 20, Issue 6, p527
- ISSN
0892-7553
- Publication type
Article