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Vespillo burying beetle
The Observer
|September 07, 2025
Some say that powerful scents bring back the past. Not me. In that single moment of gorgeous olfaction I smelled a glorious future. All the hope in the world was revealed by the scent that wafted towards me on the gentlest breeze. There was a corpse out there, a good mile off, and I knew at once that it would bring me all the joy and happiness a beetle is capable of.
Monday
By this time, there were two of us. We're strong fliers and we made the journey across the Surrey night with little trouble. And there it was: just about perfect. A short-tailed field vole: dead, ripe and luscious. Nothing became him in life like the leaving of it. It wasn’t just delicious: it was the start of family life.
Tuesday
This story is from the September 07, 2025 edition of The Observer.
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