![carrion beetle carrion beetle](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ASSjvhcYXng/WHFBHBR4QhI/AAAAAAAAJOQ/6I1Mz9LgC7wxO9CQ1aQGX2xd_u9JCdPaQCLcB/s1600/HeterosilphaRamCO2c.jpg)
Such fragmentation reduced or eliminated prey species favored for breeding carrion, such as passenger pigeons, wild turkeys and prairie chickens. The prevailing theory indicates habitat fragmentation was largely responsible for the American burying beetle's decline (Raithel 1991).
![carrion beetle carrion beetle](https://www.insectidentification.org/imgs/insects/american-carrion-beetle_7.jpg)
Current Threats, Status, and Conservation The beetles overwinter as adults to breed the following year, their parents can breed again during the warm summer months however, both will die soon. After 48 to 60 days from carcass burial they emerge as adults. Males guard the larva and carcass from other beetles and intruders (Raithel 1991). Female beetles stay with the young until the carcass is completely consumed and larval development is completed. The American buying beetle is remarkable and is known to exhibit parental care over its young. The larger the carcass, the more larva that survive. The carcass will provide food for the larvae (Ratcliffe 2001). Then the female lays 10 to 30 eggs in a brood chamber next to the carcass. They clean the carcass of feathers and fur and cover it with secretions to preserve it. The pair buries the carcass, usually before dawn. If the carcass of the right size, about the size of a mourning dove or young cottontail rabbit, a male and female pair up (Amaral and Prospero 1999). Airborne only at night, usually only when nighttime temperatures exceed 60oF, the adults fly about seeking odors of recently deceased vertebrates (Raithel 1991). Life CycleĪdults are active between late April and September, most breeding activity occurs in June and July. When not brood rearing, adults may also feed on live insects. From as much as two miles away, they can locate a dead mouse within an hour of its death (Ratcliffe 2001). The antennae of American burying beetles have receptors capable of detecting chemicals emitted by dead vertebrates. DietĪmerican burying beetles consume a wide range of food, from vertebrate carrion of varying size to insects. Whether it is coastal grassland/scrub in the East or prairie or savannah-like oak-hickory forests with open understories in the Midwest, American burying beetles require landscapes that are open enough to allow a large beetle with limited flight maneuverability to be active at night. Other populations, mostly small ones, exist to the west of the Mississippi River in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Reintroduced populations of captively breed beetles are present on Penikese and Nantucket Islands in Massachusetts. East of the Mississippi River, the only known naturally occurring population exists on Block Island, Rhode Island. Today, the beetle is found in only seven states and is absent from more than 90% of its historic range. Between 18, beetles were also recorded in Camden, Glouster, Ocean, and Sussex Counties, with two undated records attributed to Essex County (Raithel 1991). In New Jersey, the most recent record was a specimen collected in the Hightstown, Mercer County, in 1919. Based on dated collections specimens, the beetles became quite rare east of the Appalachians between the late 1800s and the 1920s, with the last known historic locations documented in the early 1940s. Historically, the American burying beetle ranged from the southern fringes of Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia through 35 eastern and central U.S.
![carrion beetle carrion beetle](https://objects.liquidweb.services/images/201606/robert_aguilar,_serc_27753108661_cc8871a572_b.jpg)
Zoom+ The last known sighting of an American burying beetle in New Jersey was in 1919. Swarms of orange-colored mites, which keep the beetles and carcasses they feed upon clean of microbes and fly eggs, are often present on the beetles' bodies (NYDEC 2001). Below the frons, males have a distinguishing large orange-red rectangular facial mark, while females have a smaller triangular mark. Blackwings have two pairs of scalloped red spots and antenna tips are orange. One colored mark covers the frons, an upper frontal head plate, and another covers the pronotum, the shield-like area just behind the head (Ratcliffe 2001). Its coloration, orange-red on shiny black, is distinctive. The American burying beetle is the largest native member of the carrion beetle family Silphidae, of which there are 31 species in North America and 570 species worldwide (Ratcliffe). Species Group: Invertebrate Conservation Status © Brett Cortesi, Roger Williams Park Zoo American burying beetle New Jersey Endangered and Threatened Species Field Guide Zoom+ American burying beetle.