No differences in reproductive success of burying beetles after adaption to laboratory conditions on lab versus field soil
Clicks: 18
ID: 328370
2026
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This
article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score —
reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
Reader Engagement
Emerging Content
5.1
/100
18 views
17 readers
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
EmergingRanked #40 of 74 articles by views in journal of evolutionary biology
Most read
Least read
Bar heights use a square-root scale.
Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet mintedCreate a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.
5
SUSD
one-off · no wallet required
Abstract
Laboratory experiments enable controlled testing of ecological and evolutionary processes. However, the conditions imposed under laboratory rearing can also generate artificial selection and limit the broader application of experimental findings. Burying beetles are an increasingly popular model organism for understanding behavioural ecology and evolution. Laboratory populations are typically reared on artificial composted breeding substrate, which could have dramatic effects on their ecology. To this end, we compared reproductive success, offspring fitness, and parental care in fifth-generation laboratory-reared burying beetles beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides when mating on either artificial compost or soil sampled from the original collection sites of the wild-caught beetles. We found no evidence for breeding substrate specialisation despite five generations of lab adaptation, as there was no difference in the mean or variance any of the reproductive success traits between beetles breeding on lab versus field soil. Our findings indicate that Nicrophorus species may be robust to variation in laboratory environmental conditions but also highlight the importance of assessing whether adaptation to standardised laboratory conditions affects fitness in broader ecological contexts.
| Reference Key |
openalex_W7212397486
Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using
SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
|
|---|---|
| Authors | Isobel Grieve, Natalie Pilakouta |
| Journal | journal of evolutionary biology |
| Year | 2026 |
| DOI |
10.1093/jeb/voag089
|
| URL | |
| Keywords | Keywords not found |
Citations
No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.