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Sticker of Tomentose burying beetle
Bug card No. 4393 of 4,939

Tomentose burying beetle

Nicrophorus tomentosus

The tomentose burying beetle is a black beetle with bright orange patches on its wing covers and a thick collar of golden yellow hair. It sniffs out dead mice and birds with its feelers. Then it tucks them away as food for its babies.

Lives in
United States and southern Canada, in forests, shrubland and sandy prairies
Length
1.1 to 1.9 cm (0.44 to 0.75 in)
Top speed
about 0.56 km/h (0.35 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
It eats dead animals like mice and birds, and feeds them to its larvae too.
For real!Photo of Tomentose burying beetle
Picture by LASZLO ILYES (laszlo-photo) from Cleveland, Ohio, USA. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Tomentose burying beetle about 1.9 cm long (0.75 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 3 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 6.4 seconds

How big is Tomentose burying beetle compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its name Nicrophorus means death carrier, and tomentosus means covered in short hair.

2

It does not bury dead animals all the way. It digs a shallow hole under them and covers them with leaves.

3

Both the mother and the father feed the babies with food they bring back up from their stomachs.

4

It flies a lot like a bumblebee.

5

It is one of the few burying beetles that can raise its young high up in the treetops.

you asked

Most asked questions about Tomentose burying beetle

?What does a burying beetle do?

It finds dead animals, hides them under leaves or soil, and uses them as food for its babies.

?Is the tomentose burying beetle dangerous?

No. It is harmless to people and helps clean up nature.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Nicrophorus tomentosus
Named by
Weber, 1801
Group
Beetles
Family
Silphidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Silphidae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Gold-necked carrion beetle

Where the facts come from

  1. Nicrophorus tomentosus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by LASZLO ILYES (laszlo-photo) from Cleveland, Ohio, USA. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: Beetles

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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