Cannibalism occurs in a majority of both carnivorous and noncarnivorous animal taxa from invertebrates to mammals. Similarly, infectious parasites are ubiquitous in nature. Thus, interactions between cannibalism and disease occur regularly. While some adaptive benefits of cannibalism are clear, the prevailing view is that the risk of parasite transmission due to cannibalism would increase disea...

The propensity for cannibalism varies considerably both within and between species. Currently we have little understanding of both the causes of this variation and its evolutionary consequences for other life-history traits. We examine how different levels of spatial structure affect the evolution of cannibalism and how cannibalism in turn drives the evolution of dispersal. Using pair approxima...

Sexual cannibalism is often set apart from other forms of cannibalism; however, no studies have directly compared the fitness consequences of these 2 types of cannibalism. Here, we compared the consequences of cannibalism of a male by a female outside the context of mating (referred to as nonsexual cannibalism) and within the context of mating (referred to as sexual cannibalism) for the propens...

Chinese older persons (N = 164) recruited from social centers responded to a survey instrument tapping the perceived filial behaviors of children (close vs not close), and the degree to which these behaviors matched personal expectations (filial discrepancy). Across all kinds of filial behaviors, providing attention when the parent was ill or distressed was perceived to be the least performed a...

This article explores young Chinese women’s attitudes to and practices of filial piety in northern China. It applies the concept of ‘family practices’ and ‘displaying family’ to the Chinese context through the link between xiao and mianzi. Drawing upon indepth interviews with 34 young mothers, I analyse their narratives to explain how and why filial obligations to their ageing parents matter to...

The elderly are growing rapidly today as life expectancy increases. As this longevity has increased, so has the need for filial caregivers. While much has been written about caregiving stress, little has been written regarding the ethical dimensions of filial responsibility and daughter and son caregivers' perceptions of responsibility and moral demands. This paper will address the concept of f...

Seeds are complex structures that unite diploid maternal tissues with filial tissues that may be haploid (gametophyte), diploid (embryo), or triploid (endosperm). Maternal tissues are predicted to favor smaller seeds than are favored by filial tissues, and filial genes of maternal origin are predicted to favor smaller seeds than are favored by filial genes of paternal origin. Consistent with th...

Cannibalism has been documented as a possible disease transmission route in several species, including humans. However, the dynamics resulting from this type of disease transmission are not well understood. Using a theoretical model, we explore how cannibalism (i.e. killing and consumption of dead conspecifics) and intraspecific necrophagy (i.e. consumption of dead conspecifics) affect host-pat...