Steiger Sandra, Stökl Johannes
Institute of Insect Biotechnology, Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen, 35392, Gießen, Germany.
Department of Evolutionary Animal Ecology, University of Bayreuth, 95477, Bayreuth, Germany.
J Chem Ecol. 2018 Sep;44(9):785-795. doi: 10.1007/s10886-018-0982-9. Epub 2018 Jul 4.
Beetles have evolved diverse strategies to cope with environmental challenges. Although parents of the vast majority of beetle species do not take care of their offspring, there are some species, in which parents provide elaborate post-hatching care and remain temporarily associated with their offspring to defend them from competitors or to provision them with food. Usually, socially induced reproductive "control" is a core feature of eusocial societies, but here we highlight that already in small family groups, socially induced reproductive regulation can play a fundamental role. By discussing the family life of burying beetles, we illustrate the mechanisms behind such a reproductive "control" and show that - similar to eusocial insects - pheromones can be an important regulating factor. However, apart from burying beetles, our knowledge of pheromones or other signals mediating reproductive regulation is surprisingly rudimentary for social beetles. More data are required to broaden our currently patchy picture.
甲虫已经进化出多种策略来应对环境挑战。尽管绝大多数甲虫物种的父母不会照顾它们的后代，但仍有一些物种，其父母会在孵化后提供精心照料，并与后代暂时保持联系，以保护它们免受竞争者侵害或为它们提供食物。通常，社会诱导的生殖“控制”是群居社会的一个核心特征，但在这里我们强调，即使在小家庭群体中，社会诱导的生殖调节也能发挥重要作用。通过讨论埋葬虫的家庭生活，我们阐述了这种生殖“控制”背后的机制，并表明——与群居昆虫类似——信息素可能是一个重要的调节因素。然而，除了埋葬虫之外，我们对介导社会甲虫生殖调节的信息素或其他信号的了解出奇地有限。需要更多数据来拓宽我们目前尚不完整的认知。
