The Rove Beetles Insect Emus hirtus, a European species of rove beetle, feeds on insects often found around horse and cow dung. It is only about 0.7 inches (18 mm) long.
Common name: Rove beetles(cock-tail beetles)
Number of species: About 30000 (about 3100 US)
Size: From about 0.08 in (2 mm) to 1 in (2.5 mm)
Key features: Body mostly small, narrow, and elongated; shiny black or brown, sometimes densely hairy, usually with almost parallel sides; elytra very short (longer in a few species), Rove Beetles often only covering the first few segments of the abdomen; antennae mostly threadlike, sometimes clubbed.
Habits: Adults tend to run around rapidly with the tip of the abdomen curled upward over the back; many species are nocturnal, although some of the larger kinds are active during the day; most species fly well some are active in winter
Breeding: Many species form aerial mating swarms on warm evenings; eggs are laid in rotting vegetation, dung, or carrion; a few species build “nests” in the ground and look after their babies
Diet: Mainly small insects such as fly larvae; also mites, fungi, fungal spores, algae, pollen, diatoms, dung, and carrion of various kinds; some species are parasitic on other insects
Habitat: Under damp moss, in flowers, under bark or in rotting vegetation in gardens, meadows, woods, marshes and mountains (sometimes on the edge of snowfields); Rove Beetles more rarely in deserts and caves, some live only inside nests of ants or termites, others inhabit the nests of mammals or birds, many are found on the seashore, sometimes covered by the tide
Distribution: Worldwide except in the coldest and driest zones.
Rove Beetles Insect Images Gallery
Rove Beetles photo