Red-Breasted Carrion Beetle (Oiceoptoma thoracicum (Linnaeus, 1758))
Scientific name: Oiceoptoma thoracicum (Linnaeus, 1758)
Common name: Red-Breasted Carrion Beetle
French name: Silphe à corselet rouge
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Silphidae
Wingspan : 12-16 mm.
Biotope: Damp forests.
Geographic area: Europe, missing in Ireland and in the Mediterranean islands.
Observation period : Mainly from April to August.
The Red-Breasted Carrion Beetle is easy to tell apart with its flattened body and its pale reddish orange pronotum contrasting with the bluish black colour of the elytra.
It feeds on larvae and insects found under decaying fungi, under dungs or in carrions.

Red-Breasted Carrion Beetle (Oiceoptoma thoracicum) - Yvelines, France - May 3rd 2014
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Red-Breasted Carrion Beetle (Oiceoptoma thoracicum)
I have observed this Red-Breasted Carrion Beetle on a woodland edge, on low growing vegetation.


Red-Breasted Carrion Beetle (Oiceoptoma thoracicum) - Yvelines, France - May 3rd 2014
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Red-Breasted Carrion Beetle (Oiceoptoma thoracicum)
Front view.
The black markings on the pronotum may be due to the age of this specimen.

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