Sunday, May 01, 2016

A Carrion Beetle found on the Driveway

While living in town -- the suburbs of Ottawa -- we would be lucky to find a variety of insect that went beyond ants, bees and earwigs. There weren't even many mosquitoes and flies. Out here in the "Rhubarb" the variety is truly amazing with something new on a regular basis.

My most recent find was this beetle:


I wasn't able to identify it from my two trusty bug books, Bugs of Ontario and Insects of the Peterson Field Guides Series. Looks a lot like a lightning bug but much wider. Thanks to a member of the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club Group on Facebook I now know that the beetle is the American carrion beetle (Necrophila americana)

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_carrion_beetle