American carrion beetle
Scientific name: Necrophila americana (Linnaeus, 1758)
Overview
The American carrion beetle is a North American beetle of the family Silphidae. It lays its eggs in, and its larvae consume, raw flesh and fungi. The larvae and adults also consume fly larvae and the larvae of other carrion beetles that compete for the same food sources as their larvae. They prefer to live in marshy and woody habitats. Necrophila americana emerge from their larval state in the early summer. A cuckoo bumble bee, Bombus ashtoni, displays close mimicry with the American carrion beetle. They are important in forensic studies because of their tendency to thrive on large carcasses.
From the Wikipedia article “American carrion beetle”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where it lives
The Catalogue of Life records it in: Manitoba; Nova Scotia; Ontario; Alabama; Arkansas; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida; Georgia; Iowa; Illinois; Indiana; Kentucky; Massachusetts; Maryland; Maine; Michigan; Minnesota; Missouri; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New York; Ohio; Oklahoma; Pennsylvania; South Carolina; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Virginia; Wisconsin; West Virginia; Canada (MB,NS,ON,QC), USA (AL,AR,CT,DE,FL,GA,IA,IL,IN,KY,MA,MD,ME,MI,MN,MO,NH,NJ,NY,OH,OK,PA,RI,SC,SD,TN,TX,VA,WI,WV).
Common names
Names in other languages (1)
- German
- Amerikanischer Aaskäfer
Related animals
Sources
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Catalogue of Life — scientific name, classification, common names and range.
Version 2026-09-11, CC BY 4.0.
This species in the Catalogue of Life.
Citation
Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Aedo, C., Aescht, E., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (Version 2026-09-11). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgz5n Source database: StaphBase.
- GBIF — species page and recorded occurrences.
- Wikidata — names in other languages. Q469602, CC0 1.0.
- Wikipedia — overview, from the article “American carrion beetle”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo — Michael Patnaude, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
Last updated: 4 October 2026