Data from: Revisiting the ecology and evolution of burying beetles (Staphylinidae: Silphinae)
Data files
Aug 27, 2024 version files 69.67 KB
-
Body_size.xlsx
-
iNaturalist_sightings.xlsx
-
README.md
Abstract
Investigating fundamental processes in biology requires the ability to ground broad questions in species-specific natural history. This is particularly true in the study of behavior because an organism’s experience of the environment will influence the behaviors expressed and the opportunity for selection. Here, we provide a review of the natural history and behavior of burying beetles of the genus Nicrophorus to provide the groundwork for comparative work that showcases their remarkable behavioral and ecological diversity. Burying beetles have long fascinated scientists because of their well-developed parenting behavior, exhibiting extended post-hatching care of offspring that varies extensively within and across taxa. Despite the burgeoning success of burying beetles as a model system for the study of behavioral evolution, there has not been a review of their behavior, ecology, and evolution in over 25 years. To address this gap, we leverage a developing community of researchers who have contributed to a detailed knowledge of burying beetles to highlight the utility of Nicrophorus for investigating the causes and consequences of social and behavioral evolution.
README: Data from: Revisiting the ecology and evolution of burying beetles (Staphylinidae: Silphinae)
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70175
Data are references to iNaturalist observations that showcase diversity of feeding and breeding substrates and instances of predation of Nicrophorus worldwide, iNaturalist data for the images used in figures 2-4 in the manuscript, and the data/references for data used for body size distributions provided in figure 5.
Description of the data and file structure
There are two data files that include all data. File specific information is included below under the name of each file.
iNaturalist sightings:
Data for observations of Nicrophorus from iNaturalist. Data included include the species name, what is occurring in the image, the research grade designation of the observation, and a link to the observation data. If an image was included in a figure, the figure it was used in is written under "Figures", with the attribution to the citizen scientist in the "Photo Credit" column. Fields marked with "N/A", for "not applicable", in the Figure and Photo Credit columns are those that were not included as images in the manuscript. See below for further description of each column heading.
Description of column headings:
Species: species in the genus Nicrophorus, with the genus name abbreviated to "N."
Data: description of what the Nicrophorus is doing in the photograph
Quality: quality of photograph assigned by iNaturalist to the photograph, generally indicating the degree of confidence that the species in the photograph is the assigned species
url: where the observation can be viewed
Figure: what figure the image was used in, if applicable
Photo credit: the citizen scientist who took the photo and provided permissions for the photograph to be showcased, if applicable
Body size:
Figure 5 in the manuscript includes a category for body size for each species of Nicrophorus (small, medium, large). Data fields in this file include species, average pronotum width, size category, and references that data were sourced from. See descriptions below for more details.
Fields with "N/A" indicate species for which these data are not available, or fewer than 10 individuals have been measured.
Description of column headings:
Species: scientific name for species
Mean pronotum width (mm): as described. Pronotum width is a commonly used proxy for body size in Nicrophorus, and was used because this was the most common measure used for body size across publications.
Size category: determined by plotting the body size and categorizing based on quartiles, 1-25% (small), 26-75% (medium), and 75-100% (large)
Reference (and reference therein): manuscript that provided or summarized the body size data used.
Methods
Data were collected from a perusal of iNaturalist imagery for Nicrophorus, or from published manuscripts reporting different body sizes.