American carrion beetle
The American carrion beetle is a big, flat, round beetle with a bright yellow shield behind its head. It is one of nature's cleaners. It helps to clear away dead animals in woods and marshes.
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Fun facts
It arrives at a dead animal just a few hours after the flies. Then it eats the fly maggots so its own babies get more food.
Its larvae are black. When they are big enough, they drop to the ground, dig into the soil and change into grown-up beetles.
It looks a lot like a kind of bumblebee, with a black head and a yellow middle.
Scientists who solve mysteries sometimes study these beetles, because they come to dead animals at a known time.
Grown-up beetles spend the winter resting and come out again in spring.
Most asked questions about American carrion beetle
?What does the American carrion beetle eat?
It eats dead animals, fungi and the fly maggots it finds on them.
?Is the American carrion beetle dangerous?
No. It is harmless to people, but because it lives on dead animals it is best not to touch it.
?How big is the American carrion beetle?
It is about 1 to 2 centimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Necrophila americana
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Silphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Silphidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- American carrion beetle (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Michael Patnaude. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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