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Caching Behavior In Burying Beetles, Stephen T. Trumbo

EEB Articles

Being the first to discover a resource can provide a competitive advantage (priority effect), even for an animal that is inferior in aggressive contests. Nicrophorus spp. (burying beetles) are known for caching a small vertebrate carcass as provision for their young, reducing volatile cues available to rivals by burying the carcass (vertical movement) and by altering the microbial community. A decomposing carcass, however, can leave cues (residues of decay) on soil and leaf litter that a burying beetle has less opportunity to neutralize. I investigated whether horizontal movement of the carcass by burying beetles, separating the carcass from soil at …