About

The Common sexton beetle is a 'burying beetle': these beetles are the undertakers of the animal world, burying dead and decaying animals, such as mice and small birds. Common sexton beetles can be found wherever there are corpses for them to feed on, and often fly into lights at night. Males and females pair-up at the corpse and will fight off rivals to take charge of it and bury it. The female lays her eggs on, or beside, the buried body and the resulting larvae eat the rotting corpse. Burying beetles are unusual in the beetle-world because both males and females continue to care for the larvae after they hatch - feeding them from the corpse. Their antennae are equipped with receptors that are able to detect rotting bodies from metres, even kilometres, away.