Rove beetle

Rove Beetle

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Rove beetle

The rove beetles are a large family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
(Staphylinidae) of beetle

Beetle

Beetles are the group of insects with the largest number of known species. They are placed in the order Coleoptera , which contains more described species than in any other order in the animal, constituting about 25% of all known life-forms....
s, primarily distinguished by their short elytra that leave more than half of their abdomens exposed. With over 46,000 species in thousands of genera, the group is the second largest family of beetles after the Curculionidae (the true weevils). It is an ancient group, with fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
rove beetles known from the Triassic

Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period that extends from about 251 to 199 annum . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic....
, 200 million years ago.

One well-known species is the Devil's coach horse beetle

Devil's coach horse beetle

The devil's coach-horse beetle is a very common and widespread European beetle, belonging to the large family of the Rove beetles . It was originally named Staphylinus olens in 1764, and some authors and biologists still use this older name....
.

Find other species on the List of British rove beetles

List of rove beetle (Staphylinidae) species recorded in Britain

The following is a list of the rove beetles recorded in Britain. For other beetle families, see the parent article List of beetle species recorded in Britain....
.

ight be expected for such a large family, there is considerable variation among the species.

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Encyclopedia

The rove beetles are a large family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
(Staphylinidae) of beetle

Beetle

Fossil

Triassic

Devil's coach horse beetle

List of rove beetle (Staphylinidae) species recorded in Britain

The following is a list of the rove beetles recorded in Britain. For other beetle families, see the parent article List of beetle species recorded in Britain....
.

Anatomy

As might be expected for such a large family, there is considerable variation among the species. Sizes range from 1 to 35 mm (1.5 inches), with most in the 2-8 mm range, and the form is generally elongate, with some rove beetles being ovoid in shape. Colors range from yellow to reddish-brown to brown to black. The antennae

Antenna (biology)

Antennae are paired appendages connected to the front-most morphogenesis of arthropods. In crustaceans, they are biramous and present on the first two segments of the head, with the smaller pair known as antennules....
are usually 11 segmented and filiform, with moderate clubbing in some genera. The abdomen

Abdomen

In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity....
may be very long and flexible, and some types of rove beetles superficially resemble earwig

Earwig

Earwigs is the common name given to the insect order Dermaptera characterized by membranous insect wing folded underneath short leathery forewings ....
s.

The Paederus species, such as the Nairobi fly

Nairobi fly

The name Nairobi fly is applied to two species of beetle which live in East Africa, Paederus crebinpunctatus and Paederus sabaeus ....
, contain a potent toxin in their haemolymph which is highly irritating to the skin. Pederin is highly toxic, more potent than cobra venom.

Ecology

Rove beetles are known from every type of habitat

Habitat (ecology)

A habitat is an ecological or Natural_environment area that is inhabited by a particular animal or plant species. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population....
that beetles occur in, and their diets include just about everything except the living tissues of higher plants. Most rove beetles are predators of insects and other kinds of invertebrates, living in forest leaf litter and similar kinds of decaying plant matter. They are also commonly found under stones, and around freshwater margins. Several types are known to live on ocean shores that are submerged at high tide

High Tide

High Tide was a band formed in 1969 by Tony Hill , Simon House , Pete Pavli and Roger Hadden . The trademark of their first album Sea Shanties was the constant battle between the electric guitar of Tony Hill and the electric violin of Simon House....
, several species have adapted to live as inquiline

Inquiline

File:Wyeomyia smithii 1.jpgIn zoology, an inquiline is an animal that lives commensalism in the nest, burrow, or dwelling place of an animal of another species....
s in ant

Ant

Ants are Eusociality insects of the family Formicidae, and along with the related wasps and bees, they belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolution from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and Evolutionary radiation after the rise of flowering plants....
and termite

Termite

The termites are a group of social insects usually classified at the Taxonomy of Order Isoptera . As truly social animals, they are termed eusocial along with the ants and some bees and wasps which are all placed in the separate Order Hymenoptera....
colonies, and some live in symbiotic relationships with mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s whereby they eat flea

Flea

Flea is the common name for insects of the order Siphonaptera which are wingless insects whose mouthparts are adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood....
s and other parasites, benefiting the host. A few species, notably those of the genus Aleochara
Aleochara

Rove beetles of the genus Aleochara are among the only insect parasites in the beetle family Staphylinidae. Most of the Aleochara are more rightly called parasitoids because their larvae use a single host, which is killed during the beetle's maturation....
, are parasitoids of other insects, particularly of certain fly pupae.

Although rove beetles' appetites for other insects would seem to make them obvious candidates for biological control of pests, and empirically they are believed to be important controls in the wild, experiments with using them have not been notably successful. Greater success is seen with those species (genus Aleochara) that are parasitoids.

Rove beetles of the genus Stenus are very interesting insects. They are specialist predators of small invertebrates such as collembola. Their labium can shot out from the head using blood pressure. The thin rod of the labium ends in a pad of bristly hairs and hooks and between these hairs are small pores that exude an adhesive glue-like substance, which sticks to prey.

Systematics

Classification of the 46,275 (as of 1998) staphylinid species is ongoing and controversial, with some workers proposing an organization of as many as ten separate families, but the current favored system is one of 31 subfamilies, about 100 tribes (some grouped into supertribes), and about 3,200 genera. About 400 new species are being described each year, and some estimates suggest 3/4 of tropical species are as yet undescribed.

Important Works on Staphylinidae

For the Palaearctic Fauna the most up to date works are:

Lohse, G.A. (1964) Familie: Staphylinidae. In: Freude, H., Harde, K.W. & Lohse, G.A. (Eds.), Die Käfer Mitteleuropas. Band 4, Staphylinidae I (Micropeplinae bis Tachyporinae). Krefeld: Goecke & Evers Verlag, 264 pp.
Lohse, G.A. (1974) Familie: Staphylinidae. In: Freude, H., Harde, K.W. & Lohse, G.A. (Eds.), Die Käfer Mitteleuropas. Band 5, Staphylinidae II (Hypocyphtinae und Aleocharinae). Pselaphidae. Krefeld: Goecke & Evers Verlag, 381 pp.
Lohse, G.A. (1989) Ergänzungen und Berichtigungen zu Freude-Harde-Lohse "Die Käfer Mitteleuropas" Band 5 (1974), pp. 185-243 In: Lohse, G.A. & Lucht, W.H. (Eds.), Die Käfer Mitteleuropas. 1. Supplementband mit Katalogteil. Krefeld: Goecke & Evers Verlag, pp. 185-243.

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on the UF
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The University of Florida is a Public university land-grant university, sea grant colleges, Space grant colleges major research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida, in the United States....
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on the UF
University of Florida

The University of Florida is a Public university land-grant university, sea grant colleges, Space grant colleges major research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida, in the United States....
/ IFAS
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

The University of Florida?s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is a federal-state-county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences, and enhancing and sustaining the quality of human life by making that information accessible....
Featured Creatures Web site