The evolution of sibling rivalry is a classic problem in behavioral ecology. Our approach of observing the experimental evolution of sibling interactions in real time reveals three key insights. First, when parents provide parental care, siblings evolve to compete. Parental care compensates for the costs of sibling rivalry. Second, when parents do not supply care, siblings evolve to cooperate. Sibling cooperation compensates for the loss of parental care. Third, rapid evolutionary switching between sibling rivalry and sibling cooperation is possible because siblings induce greater levels of rivalry (or cooperation) in each other. This generates positive evolutionary feedback, rapidly locking larvae into evolving greater levels of competition (or cooperation) in the presence (or absence) of parental care.

Abstract

Sibling rivalry is commonplace within animal families, yet offspring can also work together to promote each other’s fitness. Here we show that the extent of parental care can determine whether siblings evolve to compete or to cooperate. Our experiments focus on the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, which naturally provides variable levels of care to its larvae. We evolved replicate populations of burying beetles under two different regimes of parental care: Some populations were allowed to supply posthatching care to their young (Full Care), while others were not (No Care). After 22 generations of experimental evolution, we found that No Care larvae had evolved to be more cooperative, whereas Full Care larvae were more competitive. Greater levels of cooperation among larvae compensated for the fitness costs caused by parental absence, whereas parental care fully compensated for the fitness costs of sibling rivalry. We dissected the evolutionary mechanisms underlying these responses by measuring indirect genetic effects (IGEs) that occur when different sibling social environments induce the expression of more cooperative (or more competitive) behavior in focal larvae. We found that indirect genetic effects create a tipping point in the evolution of larval social behavior. Once the majority of offspring in a brood start to express cooperative (or competitive) behavior, they induce greater levels of cooperation (or competition) in their siblings. The resulting positive feedback loops rapidly lock larvae into evolving greater levels of cooperation in the absence of parental care and greater levels of rivalry when parents provide care.