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Duration and benefits of biparental brood care in the dung beetle Onthophagus vacca (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)
Author(s) -
SOWIG PETER
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
ecological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.865
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2311
pISSN - 0307-6946
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2311.1996.tb00269.x
Subject(s) - brood , dung beetle , biology , scarabaeidae , zoology , larva , ecology
.1 Single males, single females or pairs of dung beetles, Onthophagus vacca , were released on artificial small (100 g) or large (1000 g) dung pats in the laboratory. Emigrating beetles were trapped at 12 h intervals, and the number and size of the brood chambers were recorded after each replicate. 2 Emigration of males was delayed if females were present in the same dung pats, whereas emigration times of females were independent of the presence or absence of males. 3 A residency of 60 h proved to be a threshold value. Females emigrating before this time did not breed, whereas those emigrating later had built at least two brood chambers. 4 Females paired with males built more brood chambers than single females. 5 The reproductive success of pairs was not influenced by the size of the dung pats.