Progressive provisioning is a term used in

entomology Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

to refer to a form of parental behavior in which an adult (most commonly a

hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typi ...

n such as a bee or

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

) feeds its

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e directly after they have hatched, feeding each larva repeatedly until it has completed development. The food is typically in the form of masticated or immobilized prey items (in predatory wasps), or regurgitated nectar mixed with pollen (in bees); only rarely are other sorts of food resources used (such as glandular secretions, or carrion). While this sort of direct and repetitive feeding of offspring is extremely common in groups such as

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s and

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s, it is far less common among insects, with the exception of

eusocial Eusociality ( Greek 'good' and social) is the highest level of organization of sociality. It is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping generations wit ...

insects (one of the defining features of eusociality is cooperative brood care). Accordingly, progressive provisioning is universal among

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

s, and widespread among the social bees and wasps. Certain nonsocial wasps also rear their young with this type of feeding. Young

termite Termites are a group of detritivore, detritophagous Eusociality, eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of Detritus, decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, Plant litter, leaf litter, and Humus, soil humus. They are dist ...

s (and other hemimetabolous insects) are able to feed themselves, and therefore do not demonstrate any form of provisioning. One of the only well-known examples of progressive provisioning outside of the Hymenoptera are the

burying beetle Burying beetles or sexton beetles, genus ''Nicrophorus'', are the best-known members of the family Silphidae (carrion beetles). Most of these beetles are black with red markings on the Elytron, elytra (forewings). Burying beetles are true to th ...

s, which care for their larvae and supply them with a mass of carrion, which the adults chew and regurgitate to the developing larvae. Many eusocial bees, such as

stingless bee Stingless bees (SB), sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (from about 462 to 552 described species), comprising the Tribe (biology), tribe Meliponini (or subtribe Meliponina according to other aut ...

s and halictids, practice

mass provisioning Mass provisioning is a form of parental investment in which an adult insect, most commonly a hymenopteran such as a bee or wasp, stocks all the food for each of her offspring in a small chamber (a "cell") before she lays the egg. This behavior is ...

, where all of the larval food is supplied before the egg is laid.

References

Ethology Behavioral ecology Sociobiology {{ethology-stub

See also

References