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荷尔蒙调节社会行为的机制。如何内分泌系统和环境，包括其他个体的行为，可能相互作用是越来越感兴趣的。然而，尽管昆虫有着丰富的行为习惯，人们对调节它们社会行为的内分泌机制却知之甚少。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。它们在几个方面不同寻常。他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协调起来。它们的行为必须经历有规律的变化，从竞争到合作，从杀婴到为人父母。雄性和雌性还必须与配偶协调它们的生殖行为和内分泌系统。斯科特博士的研究项目有以下目的：利用放射免疫分析法，建立雄性和雌性在繁殖周期，特别是亲代抚育期间的幼鱼激素（JH）和表皮甾体激素的谱图；2 .确定激素对亲代行为的控制，特别是从杀婴到喂养和亲代照顾幼虫的转变的线索；探讨JH和表皮甾体激素在群居繁殖雌性中建立生殖优势的作用。

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.