ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2007
The smell of parents: breeding status influences cuticular hydrocarbon pattern in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ecological and social factors lead to variation in parental care between sexes in a burying beetle.Insect science · 2026Article
- Cuticular hydrocarbons as biomarkers of developmental stages in Thanatophilus sinuatus (Fabricius, 1775) (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae): evidence from GC-MS and random forest modeling.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2026Article
- Divergence in cuticular wax profiles generates partial behavioural isolation between leaf beetle populations with different dispersal traits.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Recognition of a Mating Partner Using Cuticular Hydrocarbons in a Species with an Extreme Intra-sexual Dimorphism.Journal of chemical ecology · 2025Article
- Seasonal Patterns of Resource Use Within Natural Populations of Burying Beetles.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Revisiting the ecology and evolution of burying beetle behavior (Staphylinidae: Silphinae).Ecology and evolution · 2024Review
- Chemosensory input from mouthparts in response to sexually dimorphic cuticular wax mediates male sexual discrimination in Galerucella grisescens (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Sex-specific influence of communal breeding experience on parenting performance and fitness in a burying beetle.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Reproduction and signals regulating worker policing under identical hormonal control in social wasps.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Article
- Defences against brood parasites from a social immunity perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Chemical Fertility Signaling in Termites: Idiosyncrasies and Commonalities in Comparison with Ants.Journal of chemical ecology · 2018Review
- Pheromones Regulating Reproduction in Subsocial Beetles: Insights with References to Eusocial Insects.Journal of chemical ecology · 2018Review
- Divergent coevolutionary trajectories in parent-offspring interactions and discrimination against brood parasites revealed by interspecific cross-fostering.Royal Society open science · 2018Article
- Hormonal pleiotropy helps maintain queen signal honesty in a highly eusocial wasp.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Nest signature changes throughout colony cycle and after social parasite invasion in social wasps.PloS one · 2017Article
- Beyond Cuticular Hydrocarbons: Chemically Mediated Mate Recognition in the Subsocial Burying Beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides.Journal of chemical ecology · 2017Article
- Insect Adhesion Secretions: Similarities and Dissimilarities in Hydrocarbon Profiles of Tarsi and Corresponding Tibiae.Journal of chemical ecology · 2016Article
- A hormone-related female anti-aphrodisiac signals temporary infertility and causes sexual abstinence to synchronize parental care.Nature communications · 2016Article
- Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The waxy layer of the cuticle has been shown to play a fundamental role in recognition systems of insects. The biparental burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is known to have the ability to discriminate between breeding and non-breeding conspecifics and also here cuticular substances could function as recognition cue. However, it has not yet been demonstrated that the pattern of cuticular lipids can reflect the breeding status of a beetle or of any other insect. With chemical analysis using coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we showed that the chemical signature of N. vespilloides males and females is highly complex and changes its feature with breeding status. Parental beetles were characterized by a higher amount of some unusual unsaturated hydrocarbons than beetles which are not caring for larvae. The striking correlation between cuticular profiles and breeding status suggests that cuticular hydrocarbons inform the beetles about parental state and thus enable them to discriminate between their breeding partner and a conspecific intruder. Furthermore, we found evidence that nutritional conditions also influence the cuticular profile and discuss the possibility that the diet provides the precursors for the unsaturated hydrocarbons observed in parental beetles. Our study underlines the fact that the cuticular pattern is rich of information and plays a central role in the burying beetles' communication systems.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.