The American Burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) could be the unlikely hero of your summertime picnic. Hypotheses for the decline of the American burying beetle include increased pesticide exposure, habitat loss, the effects of night-time lights, and increased competition with vertebrate scavengers.
Full Answer
The American burying beetle is one of nature's most efficient recyclers, feeding and sheltering its own brood while simultaneously returning nutrients to the earth to nourish vegetation and keeping ant and fly populations in check.
Besides habitat change, pesticides may have played a part in the beetles' decline. As a result, the "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service" now lists the American burying beetle as a federally protected endangered species.
Beetles are of value to humans in many ways. They are prominent decomposers, especially in forests. As predators, they reduce populations of problem insects, especially caterpillars. Ladybird beetles are widely known to be important predators of aphids, and can be purchased commercially for this purpose.
HABITAT: The American burying beetle has been found in various habitat types, from open fields to grasslands to different types of forest. RANGE: The historical distribution of the American burying beetle included the eastern half of North America.
Critically EndangeredAmerican burying beetle / Conservation status
There are no known adverse effects of American burying beetles on humans.
These insects have co-evolved over thousands of years with their host trees and are an integral part of forest ecosystems. Bark beetles help shape forest structure and composition and influence forest productivity and biogeochemical cycling (i.e., the movement of elements through the ecosystem).
Dung beetles influence the ecosystem in many ways. They help cycle nutrients in the soil when they bury the dung or carrion. By removing the dung, they prevent populations of parasitic flies from breeding in the fresh faeces of mammals.
Beetles are important to humans and our environment! Some beetles are insectivores or pollinators - these beetles help plants & farmers. Insectivore beetles, like the ladybug, eat pests that feed on our crops! Soldier beetles are great pollinators and spread pollen from flower to flower.
Single males attract mates by releasing a pheromone from the tip of their abdomens. Females can raise a brood alone, fertilizing her eggs using sperm stored from previous copulations. The carcass must be buried by the beetle(s) to get it out of the way of potential competitors, which are numerous.
The Center has successfully bred thousands of American burying beetles at the Saint Louis Zoo. Working with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Missouri Department of Conservation, and The Nature Conservancy, the Zoo is reintroducing captive beetles to southwest Missouri.
There are perhaps fewer than 1,000 individuals in the only remaining population east of the Mississippi River, and the Oklahoma and Arkansas populations (currently being inventoried) are of uncertain size.