Parents and offspring have different optima for the level of parental resource allocation and the timing of nutritional independence. Theoretical models assume that either parents or offspring control the allocation of resources within a brood; however, control may also be mutual. Here, we investigate whether the resolution of parent–offspring conflict is biased towards cues from either the parents' or the offspring's behaviour, or whether the conflict is under mutual control. Importantly, we considered potential shifts in the power continuum over the entire period of juvenile dependency. The burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides parents provision food for the larvae, and the larvae solicit food from their parents with conspicuous begging displays. Both parental and larval behaviours change as larvae age. We repeatedly manipulated the age of the brood females care for, thereby creating mismatch between the age of the foster brood and expected age of the brood from the female parent's perspective, over the period of dependency in juvenile development. We found that females adjusted the total amount of provisioning based on the actual age of the brood. However, both the parent and the offspring influenced the levels of food provisioning, which followed neither the expected age of the brood from the parent's perspective nor offspring age. Our results suggest that there is mutual control over parental care, thus contradicting the dichotomous view of control over parental care. We suggest that the mutual influence of both parents and the offspring should be taken into account in development of future theory, as well as empirical studies.

中文翻译：

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资源分配由埋藏甲虫的父母和后代决定

父母和后代对父母资源分配水平和营养独立的时机有不同的优化。理论模型假设父母或后代控制了一个种群内的资源分配；然而，控制也可能是相互的。在这里，我们调查亲子冲突的解决是否偏向于来自父母或后代行为的线索，或者冲突是否处于相互控制之下。重要的是，我们考虑了整个青少年依赖期间权力连续体的潜在变化。埋葬甲虫 Nicrophorus vespilloides 的父母为幼虫提供食物，幼虫通过显眼的乞讨展示向父母索取食物。父母和幼虫的行为都会随着幼虫年龄的变化而变化。在幼年发育的依赖时期，我们反复操纵雌性照顾的幼鸟的年龄，从而造成寄养幼鸟的年龄与从母体的角度来看幼鸟的预期年龄之间的不匹配。我们发现雌性会根据育雏的实际年龄调整供应总量。然而，父母和后代都影响了食物供应水平，从父母的角度来看，既不遵循预期的育雏年龄，也不遵循后代的年龄。我们的研究结果表明，对父母照顾存在相互控制，因此与对父母照顾控制的二分法相矛盾。我们建议在未来理论的发展以及实证研究中应考虑父母和后代的相互影响。