burying beetle

noun

: any of various beetles (family Silphidae and especially genus Nicrophorus) that bury and lay eggs on the carcasses of small animals which provide a food source for the developing larvae

Examples of burying beetle in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Just as observation and a dose of evolutionary logic revealed male burying beetles not as attentive fathers but as possessive mate guarders, the natural and behavioral sciences deflated my dreamy credo, exposing my lofty aspirations as performance and self-deception. Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2024 My job was to collect burying beetles—necrophagous critters with wing cases the colors of Halloween—using traps made out of coffee cans and chicken flesh. Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2024 The Saint Louis Zoo pulled nearly $900,000 in money designated for conservation programs, including one dedicated to monitoring and reintroducing the endangered American burying beetle. Jennifer Oldham, BostonGlobe.com, 8 June 2020 Schwing: After 100 million years or so of practice, burying beetle parents have the job down cold...but also stench-free and ready for eating. Emily Schwing, Scientific American, 28 Oct. 2021 The Center sued the USFWS on March 25 to challenge the Trump administration's downlisting of the American burying beetle from endangered to threatened. Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 4 Apr. 2021 What’s the difference between a suburban parent and a burying beetle? Eva Frederick, Science | AAAS, 11 Sep. 2019

Word History

First Known Use

1818, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of burying beetle was in 1818

Dictionary Entries Near burying beetle

Cite this Entry

“Burying beetle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/burying%20beetle. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

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