Data for: Larval environmental conditions influence plasticity in resource use by adults in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides

Recent studies have shown that intraspecific patterns of phenotypic plasticity can mirror patterns of evolutionary diversification among species. This appears to be the case in Nicrophorus beetles. Within species, body size is positively correlated with the size of carrion used to provision larvae and parental performance. Likewise, among species, variation in body size influences whether species exploit smaller or larger carrion and the extent to which larvae depend on parental care. However, it is unclear whether developmental plasticity in response to carcass size, parental care, or both underlie transitions to new carcass niches. We examined this by testing whether variation in the conditions experienced by N. vespilloides larvae influenced their ability to breed efficiently upon differently sized carcasses as adults. We found that the conditions experienced by larvae during development played a critical role in determining their ability to use large carcasses effectively as adults....

近期研究证实，种内表型可塑性（intraspecific phenotypic plasticity）的分布格局可反映物种间的进化分化（evolutionary diversification）模式。埋葬甲属（Nicrophorus）甲虫的相关研究便印证了这一结论。在同一物种内，成虫体型与用于抚育幼虫的腐尸尺寸以及双亲抚育表现呈显著正相关。同样，在不同物种间，体型差异会影响其对小型或大型腐尸的利用偏好，以及幼虫依赖双亲抚育的程度。然而，目前尚不明确，针对腐尸尺寸、双亲抚育或二者共同作用产生的发育可塑性（developmental plasticity），是否为物种向新腐食生态位转变的内在机制。本研究以黑负葬甲（N. vespilloides）为实验对象，通过检验其幼虫发育阶段经历的环境条件差异，是否会影响成虫阶段利用不同尺寸腐尸高效繁殖的能力，对上述问题展开探究。研究结果显示，幼虫发育阶段所处的环境条件，对成虫能否有效利用大型腐尸的能力具有关键调控作用。