DOI: 10.5061/dryad.r4xgxd2jd
title: The evolutionary demise of a social interaction: experimentally induced loss of traits involved in the supply and demand of care

description: Phenotypic plasticity enables animals to adjust their behaviour flexibly
 to their social environment – sometimes through the expression of adaptive
 traits that have not been exhibited for several generations. We
 investigated how long social adaptations can usefully persist when they
 are not routinely expressed, by using experimental evolution to document
 the loss of social traits associated with the supply and demand of
 parental care. We allowed populations of burying beetles Nicrophorus
 vespilloides to evolve in two different social environments for 48
 generations in the lab. In “Full Care” populations, traits associated with
 the supply and demand of parental care were expressed at every generation,
 whereas in “No Care” populations, we prevented expression of these traits
 experimentally. We then revived trait expression in the No Care
 populations at generations 24, 43, and 48 by allowing parents to supply
 post-hatching care and compared these social traits with those expressed
 by the Full Care populations. We found that offspring demands for care and
 male provision of care in the No Care populations were lost sooner than
 female provision of care. We suggest that this reflects differences in the
 strength of selection for the expression of alternative traits in
 offspring, males, and females, which can enhance fitness when
 post-hatching care is disrupted.
description: # Bladon EK, Pascoal S, Bird N, Mashoodh R, Kilner RM (2023). The
 evolutionary demise of a social interaction: experimentally induced loss
 of traits involved in the supply and demand of care. Evolution Letters.
 Comments and requests should be addressed to Eleanor Bladon:
 [ekr23@cam.ac.uk](mailto:ekr23@cam.ac.uk) or
 [eleanor.bladon@gmail.com](mailto:eleanor.bladon@gmail.com) # Description
 of the data and file structure Details of data collection methods for each
 of the datasets can be found in the manuscript listed above. Bladon2023 -
 Gen 24 Breeding Data and Bladon2023 - Gen 43 Breeding Data contain the
 following columns: * Block - Experimental block 1 or 2 * Treatment - In
 generation 24: FK = Full Care larvae with original parents, NK = No Care
 larvae with original parents, FTF = Full Care larvae with new Full Care
 parents, NTF = No Care larvae with new Full Care parents, FTN = Full Care
 larvae with new No Care parents, NTN = No Care larvae with new No Care
 parents. In generation 43: FCSamePar = Full Care larvae with original
 parents, NCSamePar = No Care larvae with original parents, FCwFCPar = Full
 Care larvae with new Full Care parents, NCwFCPar = No Care larvae with new
 Full Care parents, FCwNCPar = Full Care larvae with new No Care parents,
 NCwNCPar = No Care larvae with new No Care parents. * OriginalBoxID - ID
 given to parental pairings for breeding (before any parent swaps). *
 CarcassMass - Mass in grams of carcass given to this pair of beetles for
 breeding. * MaleID * FemaleID * NewParentsID - If parents were swapped,
 the OriginalBoxID of the new parents. If parents weren't swapped,
 "NA". * LarvalPop - Experimental population of the brood (Full
 Care or No Care). * CurrentParentPop - Experimental population of parents
 with the brood after the swaps. * Transferred - Were parents swapped in
 this brood? "Y" if yes, "N" if no. * MaleDepartTime -
 The number of hours after the experiment started (swaps took place) that
 the male parent was found in the escape chamber (see paper for details of
 check protocol). * FemDepartTime - The number of hours after the
 experiment started (swaps took place) that the female parent was found in
 the escape chamber (see paper for details of check protocol). * LarvaeNo -
 Number of larvae at dispersal. * LarvaeMass - Mass in grams of larvae at
 dispersal. * MaleLeft - Did the male leave into the escape chamber during
 the experiment? "1" for yes, "0" for no. * FemaleLeft
 - Did the female leave into the escape chamber during the experiment?
 "1" for yes, "0" for no. * FemLeftFirst - Did the
 female leave before the male? "1" for yes, "0" for no.
 * LowerMaleDepart - Since the checks were done at intervals (see paper for
 details of check protocol), adults that were found in the escape chamber
 at a check could have left anytime between the last check and the current
 check. As the survival models presented in the paper were interval
 censored, they required a lower potential leaving time (just after the
 last check) and an upper potential leaving time (just before the current
 check). This, and the next three columns provide these data. *
 UpperMaleDepart - See "LowerMaleDepart" explanation.
 "Inf" indicates that the beetle did not leave by the end of the
 experiment. * LowerFemDepart - See "LowerMaleDepart"
 explanation. * UpperFemDepart - See "LowerMaleDepart"
 explanation. "Inf" indicates that the beetle did not leave by
 the end of the experiment. Bladon2023 - Gen 48 Begging Data contains the
 following columns: * BroodID - ID given to experimental brood. * Treatment
 - During experiment: FwF = Full Care larvae with Full Care foster parent,
 NwN = No Care larvae with No Care foster parent, FwN = Full Care larvae
 with No Care foster parent, NwF = No Care larvae with Full Care foster
 parent. * Block - Experimental block 1 or 2. * LarvaeNo - Number of larvae
 in each brood during the begging scans. * LarvaePop - The experimental
 population of the larvae in the experiment. * CurrentParentPop - The
 experimental population of the foster parent in the experiment. * Scan1Beg
 - The number of larvae displaying begging behaviour during the first scan
 (see paper for details of scan protocol). * Scan1Assoc - The number of
 larvae displaying associating behaviour during the first scan (see paper
 for details of scan protocol). * Columns for begging and associating scans
 in minutes 2-10 - As above but for scans 2-10. * BegTot - The totals of
 the 10 begging scan columns. * AssocTot - The totals of the 10 associating
 scan columns. * BegAssocTot - The totals of the two previous columns.