Identification
Scientific Name:
Silpha sp., Nicrophorus sp.
Common Names:
Carrion beetles, death-carriers, sexton beetles, burying beetles

Classification
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Silphidae
Genus: The two most common genera of this species are Silpha and Nicrophorus
Species: The family Silphidae numbers around 2 000 species
 

Habitat
Carrion beetles occur wherever there is carrion or decaying flesh, therefore worldwide. Some species, however, are specific to certain areas of the world, such as Europe or North America.

Profile
Blowflies are generally oval shaped and flattened. Their abdomens are mostly, but not completely, covered by their rounded elytra. Burying beetles are shorter and elongated.
 
The Nicrophorus, or burying beetle, actually buries the dead animals to hide them from other scavengers. Their larvae feed on the buried remains.
 
Once the dead animal is safely buried, the female carrion beetles dig a tunnel and lay their eggs near the decomposing flesh, which will be as big a treat for their offspring as it is for the adults.
 
Carrion beetle larvae emerge five days after the female lays her eggs. The mother feeds them much like a bird feeds its young, regurgitating a nutritious fluid made from partially digested flesh and her own digestive juices. This type of TLC towards her offspring is quite exceptional among insects.

Burying beetles are extremely strong. Two of them can carry a dead animal the size of a rat over a distance of a metre to a more suitable burying site.
  

Warning to hunters: you will almost always find Nicophorus larvae and beetles under decomposing animals. Collectors have been known to stop on highways to pick up road kill -- dead cats and dogs -- to collect the carrion-feeding beetles and larvae hidden under them.
  

Like most other species of necrophagous fauna, carrion beetles are highly sensitive to the odours let off by a decomposing corpse. They are able to detect in the ambient air the presence of a compound of decaying protein in as low a concentration as nine parts to one million.