A Heretofore Unreported Instant Color Change in a Beetle,Nicrophorus tomentosusWeber (Coleoptera: Silphidae)

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The burying beetle Nicrophorus tomentosus (Silphidae) (Tomentose Burying Beetle) achieves an instant color change from a strikingly black and orange animal to a largely yellow one. This transformation achieves a mimicry of several species of bumble-bees when they are in flight, and it is accomplished by twisting the elytra to expose their yellow undersides while simultaneously hiding the bright orange and black upper sides. The overall effect is an apparent combination of both Muellerian and Batesian mimicry of bumblebees.