Royal Alberta Museum: Invertebrate Zoology - Bug Facts

[Caterpillars and Other Immature Insects]

Fact Sheets: Commonly Observed and Asked About Insects and Spiders Found in Alberta

Burying Beetle (Nicrophorus defodiens)

Burying Beetle
Credit: Terry Thormin

INTRODUCTION

Burying beetles are some of the most colourful beetles in Alberta, with their bold black and orange-red pattern. When people find out, however, that these beetles feed on carrion, they are often rather disgusted.

IDENTIFICATION

These are medium sized beetles, in the range of 12 to 18 mm. They are rather stocky beetles, with obviously clubbed antennae, and are all black except for four large orange-red patches on the elytra (the modified, hardened front wings).

DISTRIBUTION

This species is distributed across much of Canada and as far north in the west as the Arctic Ocean at the Mackenzie Delta. In the United States, it is found across the northern states with fingers going south in the Coastal Ranges, Rocky Mountains and Appalachians.

TIME OF YEAR

Adults can be found throughout the summer and as late in the fall as the first half of October.

HABITAT AND HABITS

Burying beetles utilize carcasses of small mammals as a food source for themselves and their young. If the carcass is meant for their young, and more than one pair of beetles is involved, a fight may ensue to determine which pair gets the carcass. If necessary, they will move the carcass to an appropriate location for burial, where they excavate underneath it until they can bury it. Then they create a chamber around the carcass and construct a lateral tunnel leading away from the carcass. It is here that the female lays up to 30 eggs. When the eggs hatch, the larvae move to the carcass and enter a hole that the female has created. For the first five or six hours the larvae do not feed on the carcass, but rather on a predigested liquid that the female has regurgitated. After six to 16 days, depending on the species and conditions, the larvae are ready to pupate. Another 14 days later they emerge as adult beetles, and it is only then that the mother leaves the chamber. Adult beetles will also feed on large carcasses, as well as dung and decaying fungi.

SIMILAR SPECIES

There are 11 species of burying beetles in Alberta. Identification is difficult, but there is an identification guide, The Insects and Arachnids of Canada, Part 13, The Carrion Beetles of Canada and Alaska, available from Agriculture Canada (R. S. Anderson and S. B. Peck, 1985, Publication 1778, 121 pp., ISBN 0-662-11752-5).

COMMENTS

Because these beetles are so colourful, people are often curious to know what they are. Although their habits may be considered rather disgusting, they contribute to the absolutely essential service of decomposition. For a non-social insect, their parental care is exemplary.

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Last update: August 6 2004