Burying Beetle (Coleoptera: Silphidae: Nicrophorus Fabricius) Brooding Improves Soil Fertility

Burying beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) utilize the nutrients in vertebrate carrion to reproduce. The beetles utilize the bodies of rodents and birds as a reproductive resource by burying and preparing them with secretions. Although the importance of carrion to forest and savanna soil fertility has been documented, the benefit of burying beetle brooding behavior on soil nutrients has not. Native prairie soils are among the most fertile in the...