Hercules the Beetle

I would not normally post a 'dead' animal on blipfoto but I just had to share this. I found a dead mouse on my back deck and I was about to move him when I noticed he was moving. Then I saw this pair of beetles manhandling him trying to squeeze him through the gap in the deck. When I first saw them the mouse was perpendicular to the gap, by the time I got back with the camera, they had maneuvered him so the narrowest bit was at the gap, I think they thought they stood a better chance of squeezing him in. You can see the beetle underneath has a leg wrapped around under the chin. One beetle literally lifted the mouse head off of the deck. They also squeaked to each other, chatting away, I think Mrs. Beetle was complaining that Mr. Beetle had picked too big a mouse. I watched for a good 10 minutes then decided to help by throwing the mouse under the deck for them.

The beetle is called a 'burying beetle/Nicrophorus (not sure which particular one). I'll post a link about it. Basically a pair of beetles bury dead rodents and lay eggs near by and the larvae migrate to the mouse and feed on it. The whole process is really interesting, worth the read.

Burying Beetle