identifying beetles

[Michael Philip]

I think that you may have found beetles in the family Silphidae.  One group
of silphids is black, round, flattish, and with a yellow pronotum with a
black spot in the middle.  Like you said they are a little larger than a
penny.  They belong to the genus Silpha.  They are carrion feeders and are
fairly common (at least here in Michigan).  That would be my best guess.

Michael Philip
mmphilip at unity.ncsu.edu
http://www.msu.edu/user/philipmi

doctoroe at my-deja.com wrote in message <7jgnei$pt6$1 at nnrp1.deja.com>...
>I've seen quite a few beetles, but these are new ones on me:
>Found a bunch of them scurrying around the side of
>an oak tree..looks like maybe they had crawled out of the
>ground at the tree's base. They are black and yellow...kinda
>remind you of bumblebee colors, and about that size. Fairly
>round, a little larger than a penny. The back of the lower thorax is
>black..the prothorax is yellow with a kind of square black
>design in the middle.  Any idea what these are?  I collected a few
>just in case, they are something the bug experts need to
>look at.Location is central North Carolina.
>Thanks  NC
>
>
>
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