Mummy, can I have some more carrion soup?

[n2doc]

6:27 10 March 2010 by Michael Marshall


Zoologger is our weekly column highlighting extraordinary animals – and occasionally other organisms – from around the world.

Species: Nicrophorus vespilloides

Habitat: Throughout the northern hemisphere, variously in bogs and open forests. Associated with corpses

Squeamish readers might want to look away: this is a tale of decaying corpses, regurgitation and feasting on putrefaction. It is also an account of some excellent parenting skills.

We've all seen baby birds begging their parents for food. The larvae of the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides do it too, only their diet is… well, slightly different.

The story begins in a forest in northern Europe, where a small bird has died and fallen to the ground.

Sinking corpse
A pair of burying beetles, one male and one female, claim the body and begin to dig away the soil beneath it, so that the corpse gradually sinks into the ground and eventually becomes covered in soil. They bury the body in this way to keep it to themselves, safe from the hordes of other organisms eager to feed on it.

more:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18632-zoologger-mummy-can-i-have-some-more-carrion-soup.html

Lunchtime Story!

[AlienGirl]

1. That's really cool! That kind of pre-social flexible behavior in insects fascinates me

It's not as rigid as the behaviors of ants or termites, as not all larvae beg and not all parents feed when begged. There's an element of pair-bonding between the male and female, though one of the pair sometimes leaves, but that they stay bonded long enough to make a nest and begin raising young together is just...complex, in a way that makes me wonder if there's more going on in there than we realize.

Another arthropod I've heard of having some interesting behavior is the scorpion. Apparently emperor scorpions have been seen to share food with other adults in their colonies and to exhibit vigilance sharing by standing guard over cohorts who have just molted and haven't hardened yet.

Tucker