Common Sexton Beetle

The Common Sexton Beetle is a ‘burying beetle’. A black beetle with large patches of bright orange often found in woodland although the one shown here was out on a track across open moorland.

These beetles are the undertakers of the animal world. They bury dead and decaying animals, such as mice and small birds, below the soil for safe-keeping. Males and females pair-up at the corpse and will fight off rivals to take charge of it and bury it. The female lays her eggs on, or beside, the buried body and when the larvae hatch, they eat the rotting corpse.

Both males and females continue to care for the larvae after they hatch. This is unusual in beetles.

These beetles antennae are equipped with receptors that have the ability to scent decaying flesh from metres, even kilometres away.

Common Sexton Beetles can be seen from April to October and can be found wherever there are corpses for them to feed on. They often fly into lights at night.

Sexton beetles get their name from the Sexton of the church. The Sexton’s duty was to look after the graveyard.

A fairly common and widespread species in Britain.