Data from: Disentangling pre- and post-natal maternal age effects on offspring performance in an insect with elaborate maternal care

Maternal effect senescence has attracted much recent scientific interest. However, the age-related effects of pre- and post-natal maternal age are often conflated, as these naturally originate from the same individual. Additionally, many maternal effect senescence studies fail to account for potential biases associated with selective disappearance. Here we use a cross-fostered laboratory population of burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides, to examine both the effects of female pre- and post-natal maternal age on offspring life history traits and the post-care outcomes of mothers while accounting for selective disappearance of post-natal caregivers. Neither pre- nor post-natal maternal age affected offspring longevity or larval weight at hatching, and post-natal age had no effect upon post-care maternal outcomes except to confirm the presence of actuarial senescence. There was weak evidence for concave relationships between two larval traits (dispersal weight and survival) and the age of egg-producers. Selective disappearance of caregivers had no clear effect on any of the measured offspring traits. Contrary to predictions from evolutionary theory, maternal effect senescence and reproductive effort increases do not always manifest, and current theory may be insufficient to account for the true diversity of aging patterns relating to maternal care.

母体效应衰老（maternal effect senescence）近年来引发了科学界的广泛关注。然而，产前与产后母体年龄的年龄相关效应常被混淆，因为二者天然源自同一母体个体。此外，诸多母体效应衰老研究未考虑选择性消失（selective disappearance）可能带来的偏倚。本研究借助埋葬甲虫（Nicrophorus vespilloides）的交叉抚育实验种群，在纳入产后抚育者选择性消失这一变量的前提下，同时考察雌性产前与产后母体年龄对子代生活史性状的影响，以及产后抚育母体的抚育后结局。研究结果显示，产前与产后母体年龄均未对子代寿命或孵化时的幼虫体重产生影响；产后母体年龄仅证实了精算衰老（actuarial senescence）的存在，未对抚育后母体的各项结局产生其余作用。两项幼虫性状（扩散体重与存活率）与产卵母体年龄间仅存在微弱的凹型关联证据。抚育者的选择性消失对所有被测子代性状均未产生明确影响。与进化论的既有预测相悖，母体效应衰老与生殖投入提升并非总会显现，现有理论或不足以解释与母体抚育相关的衰老模式的真实多样性。