Species divergence in offspring begging and parental provisioning is linked to nutritional dependency

In animal species in which parents provide food to their dependent young, offspring often display conspicuous begging signals. These solicitation behaviors are important components of parent–offspring communication, but it is currently unclear how they and the parental response covary with offspring dependency on parental food provisioning across species. Burying beetles (Nicrophorus) are well known for providing elaborate biparental care, including provisioning of begging larvae. By using a multispecies approach, we show that larval begging intensity, as well as the time parents spend provisioning, differ greatly between individuals of the 3 species: N. orbicollis, N. pustulatus, and N. vespilloides. Our results demonstrate that the most dependent offspring of N. orbicollis invest the most time in begging, whereas the most independent offspring of N. pustulatus invest the least amount of time in begging. Thus, we suggest that begging intensity differs due to intrinsic differences in nu...