Who's that on the kitchen floor?

I walked into the kitchen in the middle of the day to find this, more than 2 cm of beetle, in the middle of the floor. Well, you can't stay here, I said. But wait here while I get my camera. It did. So I did, and then lifted the critter up and carried it out to the front porch for a little photo session. Calm on the kitchen floor, it was perhaps feeling a little harassed from being carried, so started to leave immediately upon being set down.

Heading for cover
I managed a shot anyway, and posted it to BugGuide.net.

Answers started coming in within hours. Apparently this is a carrion or burying beetle (Family, Silphidae; species, Nicrophorus orbicollis), a nocturnal beast, perhaps also a factor in its run for cover once it got outside. It lives by joining forces with its mate in burying small mammals to serve as food for their larvae. This is an unusual kind of family life for a beetle.

Given how it makes its living though, I got to wonder what else is in the kitchen that I haven't noticed yet.

If it's Friday, it's time to board the Friday Ark