24
female lays a dozen or more eggs near the flesh
and remains nearby to look after the young,
which hatch after about five days. The young
are active and seek out their mother who
produces a liquid from her mouth to feed them.
After about six hours the young also feed upon
the mouse carcass. The mother however probably
eats fly maggots, rather than putrefying flesh
and I have seen an adult beetle eating a moth.
The young beetles cast their first skins and
the second instar is rather different in
appearance to the first. The third instar
has very much shortened legs and is almost
maggot-like. They pupate in individual cells
hollowed out near the 'burial' chamber. The
adult form of the beetle emerges from this cell
after about two weeks.
IAN McCLENAGHAN
ESSEX BRYOPHYTE RECORDS
The first part of An Atlas of Essex Plants -
essentially an update of the 1974 Flora of Essex
is in the final stages of preparation for
publication, hopefully sometime in 1985.
Part One will cover the STONEWORTS (Charophyta),
with the MOSSES and LIVERWORTS (Bryophyta). To
date we have a total of 19 taxa of Stoneworts,
291 Mosses and 61 Liverworts. Each species will
have its own 10 x 10 km sq. map and text entry,
and will include records made as a result of
further searching of the national herbaria as
well as additional field records. Anyone
interested in obtaining a copy should contact
Ken Adams, as this will give some idea of the
required print run. If the demand is sufficient
Part One will include annotated drawings of
critical species as an aid to identification