A beetle with a taste for cadavers

Blanchland, Northumberland The sexton beetle can detect ‘the irresistible bouquet of death’ from a mile awayAs we climbed the hill the low cloud thinned then became wisps of mist. Patches of blue sky began to appear. Soon the heat of the rising sun would dry the droplets of water clinging to hawkbit seed heads beside the path, and their parachute of hairs would expand, carrying them away to join a blizzard of downy thistle and willowherb seeds drifting on the breeze.The aroma of Sept