365 Urban species. #323: Devil's Coach Horse

[urbpan]

Comments

[spocks_girl]

In all my childhood years of rooting around in the muck, I've never seen one of these creatures before. Thanks for the profile.

>>I think "devil's coach horse" sounds cooler<<

Absolutely!

[drocera]

Ha! My dyslexic mind read that as "Devil's cockroach." Just as good as coach horse, in my opinion!

[wirrrn]

Hey,

That's definitely a Devil's Coach Horse. Like all of the Staphylinids, they're a primary predator of maggots, which means they're found in large numbers on human corpses at the scenes of homicides. I'm prolly going to be up to my elbows in them when I start my Forensic Entomology course in February!

The most common Devil's Coach Horse over here is this one, The Orange-Headed Rove Beetle:
http://agspsrv34.agric.wa.gov.au/ento/_fpclass/forensic7.jpg

-I've raised several generations of the little dudes in a terrarium with MacNuggets as a food base/maggot attractant!

[urbpan]

Thanks so much! Usually I run unsure I.D.s past my panel of scientists (you and the other lj friends) but I decided to take a chance with this one.

[wirrrn]

Rove Beetles are pretty distinctive. Kind of like harder, pincer-less earwigs!!

[ankhanu]

Careful in the qualifiers; staphylinids cover pretty much all trophic roles, from fungivore to predator. Most are predators, however.

Identification

[rockbalancer]

So what field guide did you use for this identification. I really would like to see it. I have had a hard time finding an Eastern Mass insect field guide.

Re: Identification

[urbpan]

Ah, well, in this case I used a variety of online sources. The insect guide I usually consult is the standard old Peterson's guide. I don't know of an insect guide specific to our region.

Devil's Coach Horse

[anonymous]

We just found one in Sequim. Never seen one before!