Sex-specific influence of communal breeding experience on parenting performance and fitness in a burying beetle

Communal breeding, wherein multiple conspecific individuals live and reproduce together during a single breeding event, may generate immediate benefits in terms of defence and reproduction. However, the carry-over effects of events in communal breeding on individual behaviour and fitness remain less studied. We experimentally tested the immediate and carry-over effects of communal breeding on parenting performance and fitness in the burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespilloides). These beetles bury carcasses as food resource for their offspring and themselves, and provide extended care to the developing larvae on the buried carcass. We subjected individuals of varying sizes to communal (i.e. group-breeding) or non-communal breeding (i.e. pair-breeding) experience during their first breeding event, and subsequently to non-communal breeding during their second breeding event, and measured parental effort and reproductive success during both breeding events. In communal groups, large individual...