25 most spectacular and beautiful Beetle Species
11. Common sexton beetle (Nicrophorus vespilloides)
Common sexton beetle with four wavy orange patches on its back
The common sexton beetle is black with distinctive orange markings. It can be up to 20mm in length. © AfroBrazilian (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons
Found throughout Britain, the common sexton beetle is a carrion or burying beetle - it buries, and lives off, small carcasses. In fact, it can detect the scent of rotting flesh a mile away.
As carrion beetles eat decaying animal remains, they recycle nutrients back into the soil. They are used in forensic entomology to help determine time of death.
The parent beetles work together to create a nursery for their young in an underground chamber with a mammal or bird corpse. Then the female watches over the eggs and feeds the larvae with the partially digested carcass.
Common sexton beetle with four wavy orange patches on its back
The common sexton beetle is black with distinctive orange markings. It can be up to 20mm in length. © AfroBrazilian (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons
Found throughout Britain, the common sexton beetle is a carrion or burying beetle - it buries, and lives off, small carcasses. In fact, it can detect the scent of rotting flesh a mile away.
As carrion beetles eat decaying animal remains, they recycle nutrients back into the soil. They are used in forensic entomology to help determine time of death.
The parent beetles work together to create a nursery for their young in an underground chamber with a mammal or bird corpse. Then the female watches over the eggs and feeds the larvae with the partially digested carcass.
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13 January 2023
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