Necrophagous

Necrophagy is the feeding behaviour of an organism that eats carrion from another animal that it did not kill. Insects exhibiting this behaviour include burying beetles, wasps and blowflies.

Social wasps also exhibit necrophagous behaviour as they steal wrapped prey from the webs of spiders.

In the case of the burying beetles, dead animals are buried and then consumed underground either by the adult beetles themselves or their young.

A photograph of a burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespilloides).
Photograph by E van Herk licensed under Creative Commons.

Related terms

• Carnivore
• Coprophagous
• Entomophagous
• Maggots
• Xylophagous

Related groups of terms

• General biology

See other words beginning with N