DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7sqv9s54m
title: Surviving in the fast lane: No increased mortality, but faster growth for pathogen-exposed larvae of a family living beetle

description: Animal taxa exhibiting post-hatching care can be found throughout the
 animal kingdom. During this period, parents aggregate with their offspring
 and allow them to invest their resources into growth and development as
 parents take over energy consuming tasks. For instance, studies show that
 food provisioning and social immunity by parents can alleviate the costs
 of an offspring’s immune response to pathogen exposure. However, this
 issue has rarely been explored in offspring of species showing plasticity
 in their dependency on parental care. Here, we raise the question of how
 offspring are affected by pathogen exposure if they have access to social
 immunity through a caring parent. Parents of Nicrophorus vespilloides, a
 species exhibiting facultative post-hatching care, control the carcass
 microbiome by coating it with their antimicrobial exudates, stopping
 further decay and protecting their offspring from potential pathogens. We
 exposed N. vespilloides offspring to a generalist entomopathogenic fungus,
 Beauveria bassiana, while manipulating presence or absence of
 post-hatching parental care. We monitored offspring performance parameters
 throughout their development and found, curiously, larvae showed an
 increase in mean weight and growth rate after being exposed to the
 pathogen, while their survival and adult immunity were unaffected. These
 effects of pathogen exposure occurred regardless of parental care.
 Simultaneously, our results indicate that females invest fewer resources
 into their offspring if they have been exposed to the pathogen. Overall,
 we show that offspring of facultative subsocial species may not respond
 differently to pathogen exposure depending on their parents’ aid.
 Additionally, our results indicate that offspring of facultatively
 subsocial species may adjust their growth rate in response to pathogen
 exposure in the nest.
description: # Surviving in the fast lane: No increased mortality, but faster growth
 for pathogen-exposed larvae of a family living beetle This data set is
 split into three different .csv files that were collected during our
 experiment. Experimental_data.csv contains the data on offspring
 performance and changes of the fostering female. Immunity_data.csv
 contains the data about adult offspring immunity.
 Increased_concentration.csv contains the data about offspring performance
 when exposed to a high-concentration pathogen solution.
 experimental_data.csv - contains offspring performance data and data about
 the foster mothers immunity.csv - contains data about the offspring
 immunity parameter measured as they reached adulthood
 increased_concentration.csv - contains data about the effects of an
 increased spore concentration encapsulation_assay.zip - contains all
 .tif-files we have used to measure the encapsulation response of beetles
 NA is used in the data files to indicate missing data R version 4.3.3
 (2024-02-29 ucrt) Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit) Running under:
 Windows 10 x64 (build 19045) Matrix products: default locale: \[1]
 LC_COLLATE=German_Germany.utf8 LC_CTYPE=German_Germany.utf8
 LC_MONETARY=German_Germany.utf8 LC_NUMERIC=C \[5]
 LC_TIME=German_Germany.utf8 time zone: Europe/Berlin tzcode source:
 internal attached base packages: \[1] stats graphics grDevices utils
 datasets methods base other attached packages: \[1] interactions_1.2.0
 RColorBrewer_1.1-3 ggplot2_3.5.1 tidyr_1.3.1 lme4_1.1-35.3 Matrix_1.6-5
 e1071_1.7-14 dplyr_1.1.4 \[9] DHARMa_0.4.6 car_3.1-2 carData_3.0-5
 pacman_0.5.1 loaded via a namespace (and not attached): \[1]
 broom.mixed_0.2.9.5 future_1.34.0 utf8_1.2.4 generics_0.1.3 class_7.3-22
 lattice_0.22-5 listenv_0.9.1 \[8] digest_0.6.35 magrittr_2.0.3
 evaluate_0.23 grid_4.3.3 fastmap_1.1.1 backports_1.5.0 jtools_2.3.0 \[15]
 pander_0.6.5 purrr_1.0.2 fansi_1.0.6 scales_1.3.0 codetools_0.2-19
 abind_1.4-5 cli_3.6.2 \[22] rlang_1.1.3 parallelly_1.38.0 munsell_0.5.1
 splines_4.3.3 withr_3.0.0 yaml_2.3.8 parallel_4.3.3 \[29] tools_4.3.3
 nloptr_2.0.3 minqa_1.2.6 colorspace_2.1-0 forcats_1.0.0 globals_0.16.3
 boot_1.3-29 \[36] broom_1.0.6 vctrs_0.6.5 R6_2.5.1 proxy_0.4-27
 lifecycle_1.0.4 MASS_7.3-60.0.1 furrr_0.3.1 \[43] pkgconfig_2.0.3
 pillar_1.9.0 gtable_0.3.5 glue_1.7.0 Rcpp_1.0.12 xfun_0.45 tibble_3.2.1
 \[50] tidyselect_1.2.1 knitr_1.47 farver_2.1.1 htmltools_0.5.8.1
 nlme_3.1-164 labeling_0.4.3 rmarkdown_2.27 \[57] compiler_4.3.3 *
 data_analysis_20250905.Rmd = RMarkdown script * experimental_data.csv =
 .csv data sheet that contains experimental data * immunity_data.csv = .csv
 data sheet that contains data about immune measurement *
 increased_concentration.csv = .csv data sheet that contains data about
 effect of larval performance after exposure to an increased concentration
 of B. bassiana spores **experimental_data.csv legends** * mother_treatment
 = factor, detailing whether larvae received pot-hatching care
 ("mother_present") or not ("mother_absent") *
 pathogen_treatment = factor, detailing whether larvae were exposed to the
 pathogen ("pathogen_present") or the control solution
 ("pathogen_absent") * larval_survival_0h = number of surviving
 larvae at start of experiment * larval_survival_24h = number of surviving
 larvae after 24 h * larval_survival_48h = number of surviving larvae after
 48 h * larval_survival_dispersal = number of surviving larvae after
 dispersal * larval_survival_eclosion = number of surviving larvae after
 eclosion * Larval_Mass_0h = Mass of all surviving larvae at start of
 experiment time [mg] * Larval_Mass_24h  = Mass of all surviving larvae
 after 24 h [mg] * Larval_Mass_48h= Mass of all surviving larvae after 48 h
 [mg] * Larval_Mass_dispersal= nMass of all surviving larvae after
 dispersal [mg] * Male_OS_Size_eclosion = Mean Pronotum width of each male
 offspring after their pupation [mm] * Female_OS_Size_eclosion = Mean
 Pronotum width of each female offspring after their pupation [mm] *
 Mean_OS_Size_eclosion = Mean Pronotum width of all offspring after their
 pupation [mm] * Female_OS_Number = Number of females after eclosion *
 Male_OS_Number = Number of males after eclosion * Female_Size = Size of
 fostering mother [mm]  * Female_Mass_0h = Mass of fostering mother at
 start of experiment  [mg] * Female_Mass_24h = Mass of fostering mother
 after 24h [mg] * Female_Mass_48h = Mass of fostering mother after 48h [mg]
 * Female_Mass_dispersal = Mass of fostering mother after dispersal [mg] *
 Male_Enap = Encapsulation response of male adult offspring * Female_Encap
 = Encapsulation response of female adult offspring * Mean_Encap = Mean of
 male and female encapsulation values  * larval_gain_24h = Growth rate of
 larvae aftr 24 h. This is later correctly added via calculation in R *
 larval_gain_48h = Growth rate of larvae aftr 48 h. This is later correctly
 added via calculation in R * larval_gain_dis = Growth rate of larvae aftr
 dispersal. This is later correctly added via calculation in R *
 F_weight_chng_24h = Weight change of fostering mother after 24 h of
 post-hatching care. This is later correctly added via calculation in R *
 F_weight_chng_48h =  Weight change of fostering mother after 48 h of
 post-hatching care. This is later correctly added via calculation in R *
 F_weight_chng_dis = Weight change of fostering mother after disperal of
 post-hatching care. This is later correctly added via calculation in R *
 survival_rate_24 = Survival rate of larvae ater 24 h * survival_rate_48 =
 Survival rate of larvae after 48 h * survival_rate_dis = Survival rate of
 larvae after dispersal * survival_rate_eclosion = Survival rate of larvae
 after eclosion * M_PO_Vmax = Vmax value of PO of male offspring [Vmax] *
 F_PO_Vmax = Vmax value of PO of female offspring [Vmax] * M_lytic = Lytic
 activity of Haemolymph of male offspring [OD600] * F_lytic = Lytic
 activity of Haemolymph of female offspring [OD600] * distime = Time until
 larvae dispersed from carcass [d] * m_encap_size = Pronotum width of the
 male beetle that was used for the encapsulation assay [mm] * f_encap_size
 = Pronotum width of the female beetle that was used for the encapsulation
 assay [mm] * Carcass_weight = weight of the carcass larvae were feeding on
 [g] **immunity_data.csv legend** * ID = sample ID * Mother_treatment =
 factor, whether a mother was present or absent during the experiment *
 Pathogen_treatment = factor, whether larvae were exposed to B. bassiana
 spores or not during the experiment  * Sex = details sex of the measured
 beetle * PO_Vmax = Vmax value of the PO of the haemolymph of the measured
 beetle [Vmax] * lytic = Lytic activitiy of the haemolymph of the measured
 beetle [OD600] * encap = encapsulation response of the measured beetle *
 encap_size = Pronotum width of the measured beetle [mm]
 **increased_concentration.csv legend** * treatment = factor, detailing
 whether larvae were exposed to the pathogen ("exposed") or the
 control solution ("control") * f_empty = Weight of empty
 container [mg] * f_weight = Weight of container with female that prepared
 the carcass [mg] * survival_24 = number of surviving larvae after 24 h *
 survival_48 = number of surviving larvae after 48 h * survival_dispersal =
 number of surviving larvae after dispersal * survival_eclosion = number of
 surviving larvae after eclosion * l0_empty = empty weight of
 container [mg] * l0_weight = weight of container with larvae at start of
 treatment [mg] * l24_empty = empty weight of container [mg] * l24_weight =
 weight of container with larvae after 24 hours * l48_empty = empty weight
 of container [mg] * l48_weight = weight of container with larvae after 48
 hours [mg] * ldis_weight = weight of larvae at dispersal, scale TARAed for
 container already [mg] * carcass_weight = weight of the carcass larvae
 were feeding on [g] * female_origin = origin ID of female in our lab
 population * male_origin = origin ID of male in our lab population *
 mean_size_female = mean size of female offspring after pupation [mm] *
 mean_size_male = mean size of male offspring after pupation [mm] *
 mean_size_general = mean size of all offspring after pupation [mm]
 **data_analysis_20250905.Rmd** RMarkdown script that includes all
 necessary lines of code to re-create our analysis, as well as the plots
 used in our manuscript. At the beginning, the necessary R-packages will be
 installed by the first code chunk. Data will then be loaded from the
 corresponding .csv files, and performance parameters will be calculated,
 followed by the GLMs we used for our statistical analysis. The chunk
 called "Data clean-up" will remove certain data points where
 surviving larvae were erroneously counted.