Cedar Creek
Natural History Area
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Insects of Cedar Creek
Order COLEOPTERA
Family SILPHIDAE
(Carrion Beetles)
Fourteen species of Carrion Beetles (42 NA spp) have been collected at
Cedar Creek--primarily at baited pitfall traps or at carrion. The large
red-and-black species of
Nicrophorus
(9 spp--marginatus,
obscurus,
sayi,
pustulatus,
defodiens,
vespilloides,
orbicollis,
tomentosus,
hybridus)
are common to abundant. Adults bury small carrion, and the parents remain
with larval brood, regurgitating carrion to them and defending them from
other predators. The most common burying beetle in old fields is N.
marginatus.
N. obscurus is a late spring species
found in several fields. Common woodland species are N. sayi
(late spring), N. orbicollis (mid-summer), and N. tomentosus
(late summer). N. pustulatus is a mid-summer species that
is most often found at large carrion or in aerial traps. N. defodiens
is a small uncommon species of mid-summer. N. vespilloides
occurs in marshes and N. hybridus is a visitant to the area.
Species in the genus Silpha
(4 spp-americanus, noveborecensis,
lapponica,
ramosa)
and
Necrodes surinamensis
occur at blown carrion where adults and larvae feed on fly maggots. S.
noveborecensis
(black and orange) occurs in woods, S. americanus
(black and yellow) is ubiquitous and S. ramosa (all black)and
S.
lapponica (small black with hairy yellow pronotum) occur in fields.
LINKS
Nicrophorus
Central by Derek Sikes et.al.
REFERENCES
Anderson, RS (1982). Resource Partitioning in the carrion beetle
(Coleoptera: Silphidae) fauna of southern Ontario...Can.J.Zool. 60:1314-1325
Haarstad, JA (1985). Ecological Relationships in eight species
of coexisting Burying Beetles. PhD Thesis, Univ. of Minnesota.