Parental care buffers against effects of ambient temperature on offspring performance in an insect

Understanding how animals respond to and cope with variation in ambient temperature is an important priority. The reason for this is that ambient temperature is a key component of the physical environment that influences offspring performance in a wide range of ectotherms and endotherms. Here, we investigate whether post-hatching parental care provides a behavioral mechanism for buffering against the effects of ambient temperature on offspring in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. We used a 3×2 factorial design where we manipulated ambient temperature (15, 20 or 25°C) and parental care (presence or absence of a female parent after hatching). We found that the effect of ambient temperature on offspring performance was conditional upon the presence or absence of a caring female. Fewer larvae survived in the absence than in the presence of a caring female at 15°C whilst there was no difference in larval survival at 20 and 25°C. Our results show that parental care buffers against ...