Commonly referred to as the "Large carrion beetles," the subfamily Silphinae has approximately 113 species in 12 extant, validly recognized, genera since the most recent generic changes to the subfamily by Peck (2001).

These beetles are primarily necrophagous, and although they will feed on small carcasses (Bishop, 2001) they usually reproduce only on large carcasses (>300 g). The opposite pattern is seen in the sister subfamily, the Nicrophorinae.

There is a relatively extensive literature on silphid biology, although primarily focused on the more behaviorally complex species of the Nicrophorinae, much of which has been reviewed by Anderson and Peck (1985), Ratcliffe (1996), Eggert and Müller (1997) and Scott (1998). Heymons published a series of classic works describing the biology of various European silphine species (Heymons et al. 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930a, 1930b; Heymons & Lengerken 1931, 1932a, 1933b, 1934). The life history of Necrodes surniamensis was described by Ratcliffe (1972) but few other silphine species have been studied in detail. See Sikes (in press) for more detailed information on silphid biology, morphology, and phylogeny.