Europe and temperate Asia
Fine-art photographic collection
Thanatophilus sinuatus
A social feeder at carrion whose size, sex and temperature together record the history of its development.
About this species
Thanatophilus sinuatus(Fabricius, 1775)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Thanatophilus sinuatus is a necrophagous beetle frequently found in groups on carcasses. Both adults and larvae contribute to decomposition, and recent forensic work examines how growth under fluctuating temperatures affects age estimation.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Silphidae · Thanatophilus
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Europe and temperate AsiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Open and wooded habitats wherever small or large vertebrate carrion is available.
Adults fly to carrion odours and larvae feed in aggregations.
Decaying animal tissue.
Solitary species that feeds and develops gregariously at carrion.
What makes this species remarkable?
Larvae naturally grow in crowded feeding groups, making aggregation itself an important factor when experimental development is translated to a real carcass.
Recent work tested seven constant and three fluctuating regimes between roughly 16 and 34°C to make age estimates closer to changing field temperatures.
Body size at adult emergence differs with developmental history and sex, providing an additional clue that can help calibrate age after metamorphosis.