Michelle Pellissier Scott

Professor of Zoology

Address: Department of Zoology

University of New Hampshire

Durham, New Hampshire 03824

Phone: (603) 862-4749

Ph.D., Harvard University

email: mps@cisunix.unh.edu




Reproductive effort of animals can be focused either on competition over the acquisition of mates or on the investment in offspring, and I am interested in the ecological, physiological, and evolutionary forces that shape reproductive behavior of both males and females.

My current research centers on the use of insects as model systems to understand the costs and benefits of reproductive strategies. I focus on silphid beetles, a diverse group of insects offering a number of species that can be studied in the field and in the laboratory while retaining an important element of naturalism.

All silphids use carrion as a resource for reproduction. Burying beetles (Nicrophorus) utilize small vertebrate carcasses, which a single male and female cooperatively bury. They pairbond, establish and maintain a brood chamber, and regurgitate food to offspring. Usually at least one parent remains with the brood until the dispersal of mature larvae.

Evolution of Parental Care

I am interested in the evolution of monogamy and parental care, which characterize burying beetles in particular, and in the ecological factors that are important. Taking an experimental approach, I test the importance of different variables such as beetle population density, prey availability and size, past reproductive history and paternity assurance on willingness to provide parental care and on reproductive success. I am especially interested in the effects of intra- and interspecific competition on the evolution of parental care.

Reproductive Cooperation

Another question being addressed in my laboratory concerns the nature of conflict and cooperation between and within the sexes. Cooperative breeding is common in social insects and some birds and mammals, but rare in other groups. Although intrasexual competition is the rule, frequently male or female burying beetles will cooperate to rear a single brood. We are currently developing molecular techniques to determine parentage of these broods and examining the ecological correlates of this behavior.

Endocrine Regulation of Reproduction and Social Behavior

Reproductive behavior of insects is extremely varied and while some emerge as adults and not require environmental or social cues to breed, others, like burying beetles, undergo regular or opportunistic reproduction that depends on the location of a specific resource. While hormones have been shown to play an important role in the regulation of reproduction, they can also regulate behavior. I am also interested in the effects of environmental factors, including the behavior of a mate, on the endocrine system. Burying beetle parents must coordinate their parental behavior with the discovery of the breeding resource and with the physiology and behavior of their mate in order to successfully defend and rear their young.


Selected Publications

Graduate Students in my Laboratory: