burying/sexton beetle Beetle with hitch-hikers

5794  Hi I’m wondering what kind of bug this is. It’s a beetle type bug with little red spiders/ticks all over it. It flew in my car window as I was driving. My name is Brad and I live in Bancroft Ontario Canada.

This is a burying/sexton beetle (Coleoptera: Silphidae) in the genus Nicrophorus. The little red critters are mites that are using the beetle as transportation (a phenomenon known as phoresy) to get to their next meal source – see http://tinyurl.com/gumcmra for an image. Ed Saugstad, retired entomologist; Sinks Grove, WV.