Critically Endangered
Nicrophorus americanus
Nicrophorus americanus
Nicrophorus americanus, also known as the American burying beetle or giant carrion beetle, is a critically endangered species of beetle endemic to North America.
Appearance
N. Americanus adults are between 25 and 45 millimetres (0.98 and 1.77 in) long and can be identified by their striking, distinctive coloring.
Range and habitat
Currently, natural populations are known to occur in only ten states: Rhode Island (Block Island), Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, South Dakota, and Nebraska. They have been reintroduced to Ohio, Massachusetts, and Missouri. Nicrophorus americanus, also known as the American burying beetle or giant carrion beetle, is a critically endangered species of beetle endemic to North America. The decline of the American burying beetle has been attributed to habitat loss, alteration, and degradation, and they now occur in less than 10% of their historic range.
Biologists return each year to both islands to study the survival and growth of the beetle population.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Male burying beetles often locate carcasses first and then attract a mate. Within a few days, the larvae develop and both parents feed and tend their young, an unusual activity among insects, but a characteristic shared with the earwig.
The carrion beetle in North America is carnivorous, feeds on carrion and requires carrion to breed.
In crisis
In Oklahoma, petitions were made in 2015 and 2016 to delist the species from endangered status as it came in the way of the oil and gas industry in the region. N. Americanus was listed as an endangered species in 1989. The IUCN lists the species as critically endangered. Widespread use of pesticides may have caused local populations to disappear.
Even the extinction of the once ubiquitous passenger pigeon may have had a ripple effect on carrion feeders like this beetle. The immediate goal of conservation efforts is to reduce the threat of extinction by creating captive and wild populations.
Nicrophorus americanus is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Nicrophorus americanus, Wikidata item Q7030592. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
