Career Advancement Award: Hormonal Factors Affecting Reproductive Dominance, Cooperation and Parental Behavior in Communally-Breeding Burying Beetles

行为生物学的一个关键领域是社会行为的激素调节机制。 内分泌系统和环境，包括其他个体的行为，如何相互作用，越来越引起人们的兴趣。 然而，尽管昆虫有丰富的行为，但对昆虫社会行为的内分泌调节机制却知之甚少。 埋葬甲虫准备并埋葬小尸体，这些尸体将成为它们幼虫的食物。 他们在几个方面都不寻常。 它们必须将繁殖与在时间和空间上都不可预测的必要资源的位置相协调。 它们的行为必须经历从竞争到合作、从捕食到亲力的规律性变化。 雄性和雌性还必须协调他们的生殖行为和内分泌系统与他们的配偶。 斯科特博士的研究项目有以下目标： 1. 使用放射免疫测定法，在繁殖周期中，特别是在父母照料期间，建立雄性和雌性的保幼激素（JH）和蜕皮类固醇的分布， 2. 确定父母行为的激素控制，特别是从杀虫剂切换到喂养和父母照顾幼虫的线索， 3. 描述JH和蜕皮激素在建立繁殖优势中的作用。

A key area of behavioral biology is the mechanisms of hormonal regulation of social behavior. How the endocrine system and the environment, including the behavior of other individuals, might interact is of growing interest. Yet hardly anything is known of the endocrine mechanisms for the regulation of social behavior of insects, in spite of their rich repertory of behavior. Burying beetles prepare and bury small carcasses that will become food for their larvae. They are unusual in several respects. They must coordinate reproduction with the location of a necessary resource that is unpredictable in both time and space. Their behavior must undergo regular changes from competitive to cooperative and from infanticidal to parental. Males and females must also coordinate their reproductive behavior and endocrine system with those of their mates. Dr. Scott's research project has the following aims: 1. to establish the profiles of juvenile hormone (JH) and ecdysteroids, using radioimmunoassay, during a breeding cycle, especially during parental care, for both males and females, 2. to identify the hormonal control of parental behavior, especially the cue for switching from infanticide to feeding and parental care of larvae, and 3. to characterize the role of JH and ecdysteroids in establishment of reproductive dominance in communally breeding females.