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This video of mine shows pretty much what the title suggests.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urTAAb9RBwI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urTAAb9RBwI
Carrion beetles feeding on a wallaby carcass
- Thread starter dragonblade71
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I was disappointed a bit as your title suggested I might see a wallaby carcass. I saw some hair and some nice closeups of active larvae.
Just two seconds of perspective on the animal and setting would have been nice.
File under "constructive criticism", please.
Just two seconds of perspective on the animal and setting would have been nice.
File under "constructive criticism", please.
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Actually, I think a lot of people should be grateful that I didn't show substantially more of the wallaby. Believe me, in it's current state, it was not a pretty sight! Though I do have some other shots showing a little bit more of the wallaby but excluding the gross bits. I had planned sometime to edit these together into some sort of montage.
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I don't often get to see these critters around here. I only recall seeing one other carcass with carrion beetles around this place and they looked different to these ones. Yea, it would be intriguing to see what the adults look like.Did you see any of the adult beetles? The larvae are Necrophila sp. and the only one here in the US is N. americana, so it would be awesome to see some pics of the adults that made those larvae.
There was another invert crawling among them that I tried to get on video but it didn't make an appearance during the recording. It was black with a prominent red bulb looking thing at the front. It was quickly moving and quite agressive towards flies. If ever a fly would land near it, it would grab the fly and do away with it.
Did it resemble that by any chance? The adult beetles are very aggressive towards flies; the fly larvae, although they are food for the beetles/larvae, also compete with them to consume the carcass. So the adults are vicious towards them.
Yep, here in the US we have one species: Necrophila americana.
Translated literally it means "American Dead-Lover."
Wow who ever named that has a weird sense of humor lol.Do they only eat dead things I would assume from the name carrion beetles they do?Yep, here in the US we have one species: Necrophila americana.
Translated literally it means "American Dead-Lover."
They will only lay their eggs and breed on carrion but they adult beetles can eat quite a few things ranging from nectar to mushrooms. They prefer meat though, of course.
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Ah not quite but that shade of red is similar. It was black. Though it seemed less 'beetle-like' - narrower and perhaps slightly longer. The prominent red 'bulb' that I saw on it's front reminded me of rudolph the red nosed reindeer.
Did it resemble that by any chance?
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Hmm, it could be one of the many, many other species of carrion beetle.
When I put out my first carcass to monitor I was absolutely shocked by the variety of beetles that came to it.
I remember at one (a guinea pig) my friend and I flipped it over and found a gigantic Nicrophorus tomentosus. Don't try googling it to see what they look like; the coloration in every single picture does no justice to the actual coloration. I quickly caught it, with the intention of breeding it (it was so big it had to be a fertilized female). Just when I decided maybe I should put it back (to continue the species; there was only one at the carcass and I figured they're probably rare) it decided to fly out of the cup! ;P
They're definitely some of the most intriguing but overlooked animals of all time.
Haha, my thoughts exactly.