Kingdom Animalia Order Coleoptera Genus Nicrophorus Higher classification Burying beetle | Phylum Arthropoda Family Silphidae Scientific name Nicrophorus interruptus Rank Species | |
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Similar Burying beetle, Beetle, Silphidae, Nicrophorus vestigator, Nicrophorus germanicus | ||
Nicrophorus interruptus top 9 facts
Nicrophorus interruptus is a species of burying beetles or sexton beetles belonging to the family Silphidae subfamily Nicrophorinae.
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These beetles are present in most of Europe, in the East Palearctic ecozone, in the Near East and in North Africa.
The adults grow up to 26 millimetres (1.0 in) long. They are mostly black with two orange-red markings on the elytra and a yellow pubescence on protruding abdominal segments. They have large club-like antennae equipped with black and reddish tips containing chemoreceptors, capable of detecting a dead animal from a long way away. In fact they bury the carcasses of small vertebrates such as birds and mice as a food source for their larvae.
In Nicrophorus interruptus both the male and female parents take care of the brood, quite rare behaviour among insects. The prospective parents begin to dig a hole below the carcass, forming the crypt, where the carcass will remain until the flesh has been completely consumed. Although the larvae are able to feed themselves, both parents also feed them by regurgitated liquid food. The adult beetles continue to protect the larvae, which take several days to mature.. The final-stage larvae migrate into the soil and pupate, transforming from small white larvae to fully formed adult beetles.