The American carrion beetle (Necrophila americana) has a yellow pronotum with a big black spot in the middle. Adults of this species of silphid beetle eat fly maggots, plus some carrion. In flight, they seem like bumblebees.
Donna Brunet
American Carrion Beetle
Necrophila americana
Other Common Name:
Crusader Carrion Beetle
Family:
Silphidae (carrion beetles) in the order Coleoptera (beetles)
Description:
The American carrion beetle has a yellow pronotum with a big black spot in the middle. Adult length is about ½ to ¾ inch. In flight, they seem like bumblebees. Adults of this species of silphid beetle eat fly maggots, plus some carrion.
The American carrion beetle's larvae are black, teardrop-shaped grubs that look something like sowbugs.
Learn more about carrion beetles, burying beetles, and other silphids in their family page.
Similar species: The margined carrion beetle (Oiceoptoma noveboracense) is closely related. The pronotum is often orangish instead of pale yellow, and the dark spot has a lobe on each side. It is smaller, only reaching about ½ inch in length.
Life cycle:
Adults deposit eggs on a dead vertebrate animal, and the larvae eat the corpse. The sowbug-like larvae hatch after the dead animal has dried somewhat and eat the carrion, particularly dried skin, then creep away to pupate.
Similar Species
Carrion Beetles (Burying Beetles)
Nicrophorus, Necrophila, Necrodes, and others
Dung Beetles (Tumblebugs)
Subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae
Scarab Beetles
About 1,700 species in North America north of Mexico
Bumble Bees
Bombus spp.
Tumblebugs
Canthon spp.
Ground Beetles
About 2,400 species in North America north of Mexico
Rainbow Scarab
Phanaeus vindex
Green June Beetle
Cotinis nitida
Asian Longhorned Beetle
Anoplophora glabripennis
Soldier Beetles
Nearly 500 species in North America north of Mexico
About Land Invertebrates in Missouri
Invertebrates are animals without backbones, including earthworms, slugs, snails, and arthropods. Arthropods—invertebrates with “jointed legs” — are a group of invertebrates that includes crayfish, shrimp, millipedes, centipedes, mites, spiders, and insects. There may be as many as 10 million species of insects alive on earth today, and they probably constitute more than 90 percent all animal species.