When a female ‘burying beetle’ is focused on caring for babies and not making new ones, she releases a chemical signal to her libidinous mate that says in no uncertain terms, “Honey, I’m not in the mood”.

The Nicrophorus vespilloides, also known as the burying beetle.The Nicrophorus vespilloides, also known as the burying beetle.

Scientists described how these females employ an anti-aphrodisiac chemical known as a pheromone during a three-day period critical for raising offspring to tell the male she is temporarily infertile and prevent him from trying to copulate.

The study focused on a beetle species, Nicrophorus vespilloides, known for burying carcasses of small animals like birds and rodents as food for their larvae. It provides insight into how animals change their behaviour to provide care for their young, in this instance favouring parenting over sexual activity to produce new offspring.

“Our study helps to understand animal family life and how it is coordinated between family members,” said biologist Sandra Steiger of Germany’s University of Ulm, who led the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

“It is kind of intriguing that such mechanisms exist in animals and that animal parents synchronise their mating and parental-care behaviour for their own benefit and that of the children,” Steiger added.

Burying beetles are found mainly in temperate regions of Europe, Asia and North America. The species in this study is up to about 2cm long with a black body marked with bright orange patches.

The researchers studied about 400 beetles collected from a forest in Germany. A male and a female form a breeding pair, although they do not stay together for a lifetime.

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