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Wildlife Spotting

Photo by JDMallory
Published on Project Noah
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34.9159, -85.1091

Field Notes

Description:

Flew up under porch light. Looks like a lot of offspring on the back. Not sure what type of beetle.

Habitat:

N. Georgia porch light.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (5)
TKBotting
It looks like Nicrophorus orbicollis covered in phoretic mites. Hard for me to tell about the beetle as it is so covered. Great bug! Thanks for sharing!
beaker98
Wow! I've seen mites on a lot of different beetles, but never even close to this! That is just crazy. Wonderful spotting JD.
JDMallory
Thanks! I thought they were the offspring, little did I know they were mites. The beetle did not seem to mind that it had so many mites on it. It surprised me how well the mites could hang on after the beetle smacked into the wall a few times.
Sphingid_Matt
Those mites eat fly eggs that could harm the beetle when in a carcass great find!
LuckyLogan
Nice spotting! Possibly a saxton beetle with Gamasid mites. I found a similar situation, only mine had much fewer mites. I wrote a brief description of why the mites are on the beetle if you want to check that out http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/362856009

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Wildlife of the South East, USA
Mission
Wildlife of Georgia
Mission
Mission WILD
Mission
National Geographic's Great Nature Project
Mission
The Bug Chicks Sofa Safari

Tags

Photographed
PublishedJune 7, 2014

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