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Project Noah Nature School
Nicrophorus nigrita & Poecilochirus spp
Black carrion beetle of about 1" with yellow/orange mites. The carrion beetles' biggest competitors are flies and fly maggots. The mites feed on fly eggs and larva, thus ensuring the mutual survival of both. The beetle gives the mites transportation to their food source, while the mites allow the carrion beetle and its resulting offspring a chance to use the corpse before the flies finish it off.
near porch light and he was gone by morning, so I was unable to get any better shots, unfortunately
The mites "swarmed" almost in murmeration all over the body of the beetle. Thanks to everyone who contributed possibilities for me to look up. Updated: http://bugguide.net/node/view/49019 http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&a...
This beetle bus is overloaded:
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/127...
Glad you were able to solve the mystery!
Thank you all for the clues to this puzzle. I had a wonderful time looking up each of them, and I was sure Lisa had it, but the antennae weren't quite correct, and then I looked up Nicrophorus. I changed the 1st picture so the charateristic anntenna could be seen
It's definitely in the family Sylphidae, but I can't seem to find a match. The mites are common on carrion beetles because they help keep flies and their larvae off the carcasses. They ride the beetles as if they were a giant bus, hitching a ride from carcass to carcass. :-)
They are phoretic mites for sure. Beetle looks like a Nicrophorus sp. (Burying Beetle) to me, but Lisa is way better than I am at the IDs. Cool spotting.
Those mites are more likely Phoretic mites. Phoretic mites are that use other insect to travel from place to place to their preferred feeding places. It's like they are riding a beetle bus. I am not near a computer at the moment but you can look them up on bugguide.net. I have a beetle with some friends in my spottings as well.
Look like a Scarab type beetle. Its very interesting to see such beetle parasited by little Mites. Wonderful Spotting.
Spotted on Aug 24, 2012
Submitted on Aug 25, 2012
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