Common Beetles of our Countryside 



or even lamb. An ancient corpse, mere skin and bone, 

 will serve our purpose better than a body newly dead, 

 and if we carefully turn the remains over with a stick 

 we are sure to notice several large beetles which, if not 

 strictly mountain species, at least will be such as we have 

 not previously seen. These are what are supposed to be 

 popularly called " burying beetles/' and they do in fact 

 by burrowing beneath and around the dead bodies of 

 birds or small mammals such as mice, when they rest 

 on light sandy ground, and throwing the soil so excavated 

 forward and upward by the spade-like action of their 

 head, gradually cover up and in a sense bury such small 

 corpses. 



Anyhow we shall catch a glimpse of quite a number 

 of large species as we turn the body over, some jet-black, 

 some black and scarlet, some smaller and flatter with 

 a wrinkled exterior, and some again smaller, almost 

 globular and of a brilliant shining black ; they will 

 disappear into the moss and herbage or stones on which 

 the carcase may rest with surprising celerity, and it 

 must be our task to unearth them and secure at least a 

 specimen of each for the laurel bottle. They all belong 

 to the group Clavicornia, as the strongly clubbed 

 antennae of any that we succeed in capturing will make 

 plain. The first will probably be a large plain black 

 insect called Nccrophorus humator (the burying 

 Necrophorus), Fig. 10, Plate B. It varies somewhat in 

 size, as do all these carrion beetles, but is usually at 

 least 20 mm. long, and the only spot in it that is not jet- 

 black is the club of the antennae, and that is orange-red. 



