Burying beetles, Nicrophorus, survive two weeks without food

Decomposers are very important organisms in the environment because of their role in recycling organic matter. Burying beetles (Coleoptera: Nicrophorus) are decomposers that include the American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus). This species is on the endangered list and in the effort to conserve it, population checks are routinely done. Pitfall traps are a commonly used method of trapping however, several factors can affect trapping efficiency including the hunger status of the beetles.  In ground beetles, starved beetles are more likely to be caught however, a similar study has not been conducted on carrion beetles including burying beetles. We conducted a laboratory study using N. orbicollis where half of the individuals received ground beef every other day and the other half only received water.  We tested survival times and mass loss of the two groups at 24^o C. We found starved beetles lost approximately 1.1% of their mass per day with the first death on day 4, 50% mortality on day 9 and 100% mortality by day 18.  Although burying beetles are large and depend on patchy ephemeral resources, mass loss and death occur rapidly suggesting that a five day trapping period should detect most beetles in an area.