vayda on Nostr: 🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨 For burying beetles, home is where the carcass is. ...

🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨

For burying beetles, home is where the carcass is. These fascinating creatures bury the remains of a small vertebrate corpse then mate and lay eggs within the crypt. Both the mother and father then tend their young together, feeding upon the carcass and regurgitating it for the babies to eat. In fact, burying beetles represent the earliest known example of active parenting on Earth.

While both parents help raise their offspring, the mothers are the heavy lifters. Female burying beetles engage in more fights with intruders and are better able to defend their brood than males are.