Discovery of the Federally Endangered American Burying Beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) in the Chautauqua Hills of Southeastern Kansas

Abstract

to Texas and the panhandle of Florida (Raithel 1991). However, it has disappeared over most of its historic range (Lomolino and others, 1995) and is known currently from only six states: on Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island, southern South Dakota, the Sand Hills in north-central Nebraska, eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas (Ratcliffe, 1996), and the Chautauqua Hills in southeastern Kansas (Miller and McDonald, in press). Although the American Burying Beetle historically ranged throughout most of eastern Kansas (Lingafelter, 1995) recent intensive surveys failed to locate current populations (Cohen and Busby, 1996, Lingafelter and Busby, 1992, 1993), until three individuals were discovered during the summer of 1996 in Wilson County, Kansas (Miller and McDonald, in press). The present survey revealed the existence of populations in Montgomery and Elk counties when a total of five individuals were discovered from 24-26 August 1996. Interestingly, all three extant Kansas populations of the American Burying Beetle lie within the Chautauqua Hills physiographic province. Interesting aspects of the natural history of species belonging to the genus Nicrophorus have been presented by Ratcliffe (1996) and Scott and Traniello (1989). On locating a recently dead small animal, a pair of burying beetles excavates an underground chamber beneath it, removes skin or feathers from