@article {53398,
	title = {Social context-dependent provisioning rules in red-winged fairy-wrens do not vary with signals of increased chick need},
	journal = {Animal Behaviour},
	volume = {143},
	year = {2018},
	month = {Jan-09-2018},
	pages = {105 - 111},
	abstract = {<p>Individuals should adjust investment in parental care in order to maximize current and future reproductive success. In cooperative breeders, where helpers assist with raising offspring, larger groups may allow for a reduction in investment (load lightening) of each individual. Additionally, the type of individual, and thus the social context, can play an important role in individual investment. Less attention has been paid to how provisioning rules vary across ecological contexts, although theory suggests that individuals can only afford to reduce their investment when nestling starvation is unlikely, thus under mild conditions. Here, we tested whether previously reported provisioning rules based on social context vary with ecological conditions, by experimental manipulation of signals of chick need, in the cooperatively breeding red-winged fairy-wren, Malurus elegans. Previous work in this species has shown that all group members load-lighten with additional male helpers, but not in response to the number of female helpers in the group (additive care). We show that experimental begging playback resulted in all individuals increasing their provisioning rates, indicating that our treatment was perceived as increased chick need. However, in contrast to our prediction that load lightening should only occur when individuals can afford to do so, signals of increased chick need did not stop individuals from reducing their investment with an increasing number of male helpers in the group. These results suggest that despite some flexibility in parental effort, individuals use strict rules with respect to group composition, suggesting that individual provisioning effort is based on multiple integrated cues, and responses to changes in the environment are highly context dependent.</p>
},
	keywords = {additive care, cooperative breeding, helping behaviour, load lightening, Malurus, parental investment, playback},
	issn = {00033472},
	doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.07.010},
	url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347218302252https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218302252?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218302252?httpAccept=text/plain},
	author = {MacLeod, K.J. and Brouwer, L.}
}
@article {40445,
	title = {Reproductive Behavior of Ground Weta (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae): Drumming Behavior, Nuptial Feeding, Post-copulatory Guarding and Maternal Care},
	journal = {Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society},
	volume = {77},
	year = {2004},
	pages = {414-428},
	chapter = {414},
	abstract = {<p>Compared to other ensiferan Orthoptera such as true crickets (Gryllidae) and katydids (Tettigoniidae) relatively little is known about the reproductive behavior of Anostostomatidae (formerly Stenopelmatidae), the king crickets, weta and allies. Moreover, although the New Zealand species (the weta) are best known, there is little knowledge of the biology of ground weta (Hemiandrus species), a variable genus especially with regard to ovipositor length. This paper presents observations of mating and post-mating behavior of several Hemiandrus species with short ovipositors. Sexually active males and females drum their abdomens on the substrate, apparently as local signals for mate attraction (pheromones may be involved in long distance communication). After mating there is both maternal and paternal investment. Females provide care to eggs and young larvae and males provide a spermatophylax to the female, a mating meal that, in other ensiferan Orthoptera can be an important source of nutrition. In contrast to other ensiferans, however, the spermatophylax of Hemiandrus species with short ovipositors is deposited on the female\&rsquo;s abdomen, a separate location from the sperm ampulla. The spermatophylax is deposited while the male is attached to the female\&rsquo;s underside, apparently to her modified 6th abdominal sternite. Also, in contrast to related taxa, males remain with their mates while the mating meal is eaten. These observations indicate that ground weta are excellent systems for examining behavioral and ecological questions about the evolution of complex signals, as well as the evolution of maternal and paternal investment.</p>
},
	keywords = {communication, Hemiandrus, mating behavior, parental investment},
	url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/25086232 },
	author = {Darryl T. Gwynne}
}
