eating the eggs and small larvae of flies and other

insects that might otherwise compete with the

beetles. The Silphidae genus Nicrophorus, the

burying beetles, will proceed to bury the carrion

if it is small enough, to get it out of the reach of

vertebrate scavengers. They then skin it, lay eggs,

and prepare the buried carcass for their larvae.

Silphidae and several large, carrion-feeding

Staphylininae (Staphylinidae) also produce

chemicals that are deliberately repellent to

mammalian scavengers, to try to prevent the

carrion, together with the silphid eggs and larvae,

being eaten by a larger scavenger.

Carrion at different stages of decay is used

by different groups of beetles. For example,

fresh or slightly decayed flesh may be attractive

to Silphidae, Geotrupidae, Histeridae, and

Staphylinidae, which may feed on either the

carrion itself or on maggots and other

invertebrates that are attracted to it, but there

is a whole spectrum of carrion feeders until the

late stages of decay, when only skin, hair, and

bones remain. These later stages may attract

Nitidulidae, Dermestidae, and Trogidae, which

are basically keratin feeders, and are also found

on carnivore dung filled with undigested hair,

or debris in bird nests consisting of feathers.

Colonies of Dermestidae are kept by museums

to prepare skeletons, as the beetle larvae strip off

all remains of skin and dried muscle, leaving only

the clean bones behind.

In South America, with the extinction of

the ground sloths and other megafauna, many

dung beetle groups have adapted to feeding on

carrion. For example, the giant metallic horned

dung beetles Coprophanaeus ensifer and C. lancifer

(Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) are almost entirely

necrophagous.

above | Anoplotrupes stercorosus (Geotrupidae) and Nicrophorus

vespilloides (Silphidae) This Dor Beetle and burying beetle

recycle a dead slowworm in a German forest.