Parental care

Parental care is a behavioural and evolutionary strategy adopted by some animals, making a parental investment into the evolutionary fitness of their offspring. This strategy means that more effort is spent on a relatively small number of offspring to give each of them a high chance of surviving to reproduce; an opposite strategy is to produce a very large number of small offspring, often as eggs, which are left to fend for themselves.

Parental care is seen in many insects, notably the social insects such as ants, bees and wasps; in certain fishes, such as the mouthbrooders; widely in birds; and especially widely in mammals, which share two major adaptations for care of the young, namely gestation (development of the embryo inside the mother's body) and production of milk.

Some insects, but especially the Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), invest substantial effort in caring for their young. The type and amount of care varies widely. Solitary wasps such as the potter wasps (Eumeninae) build nests for their young, provisioning them with food, often caterpillars, caught by the mother. The nests are then sealed, and the young life on the food until they leave the nest as adults. In contrast, social wasps and honeybees raise young in substantial colonies, with eggs laid mainly by queens (mothers), and the young cared for mainly by workers (sisters of the young).

Outside the Hymenoptera, parental care is found among the burying beetles and the magnificent salt beetle. Subdued forms of parental care are also seen in the Lepidoptera, as in butterflies that lay eggs where the offspring will be able to feed. Crickets have also been known to lay eggs in optimal environments for the young.

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