What You Can See on March 21 Submitted by Ted Williams on Tue,
03/21/2006 - 08:47. From Audubon’s Earth Almanac by Ted Williams
and compiled in “Wild Moments,” edited by Connie Isbell,
Illustrations by John Burgoyne, Storey Publishing, 174 pages.
Gaudy Undertakers In spring our largest carrion-eating insect,
the inch-and-a-half-long, black-and-orange American burying
beetle, emerges from the earth, where it has spent the winter as
a pupa, and starts scanning the countryside with antennae that
can detect decaying flesh a mile away. A male will fly to a
carcass at night, then emit powerful pheromones that attract
females. Lying on its back and using its legs like a conveyer
belt, a beetle can move a creature 200 times its weight. Working
together, a mated pair buries the carcass, clips off fur or
feathers, and injects it with preservatives. This done, the
female excavates a nearby nursery in which she lays 10 to 30
eggs. Both adults attend the larvae, which rear up and beg for
food, stroking their parents' jaws