Data from: Inbred burying beetles suffer fitness costs from making poor decisions

There is a growing interest in how environmental conditions, such as
resource availability, can modify the severity of inbreeding depression.
However, little is known about whether inbreeding depression is associated
with differences in individual decision-making. For example, decisions
about how many offspring to produce are also often based upon the
prevailing environmental conditions, such as resource availability, and
getting these decisions wrong may have important fitness consequences for
both parents and offspring. We tested for effects of inbreeding on
individual decision-making in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus
vespilloides, which uses the size of a carrion resource to make decisions
about offspring number. Both inbred and outbred females adjusted their
initial decisions about the number of eggs to lay based on carcass size.
However, when we forced individuals to update this initial decision by
providing them with a different-sized carcass partway through
reproduction, inbred females failed to update their decision about how
many larvae to cull. Consequently, inbred females reared too many larvae,
resulting in negative fitness consequences in the form of smaller
offspring and reduced female post-reproductive condition. Our study
provides novel insights into the effects of inbreeding by showing that
poor decision-making by inbred individuals can negatively affect fitness.