rove beetle

The rove beetle, an insect in the order Coleoptera, the suborder Polyphaga, the superfamily Staphylinoidea, and in the family Staphylinidae. The Staphylinidae is one of the largest families of beetle in the world. There are over 26,800 species of rove beetle, with more than 2,800 of them living in North America alone. Most species of rove beetle eat other bugs. All four phyletic lines of Staphylinidae include species that occur nowhere but in intertidal zones. One line includes a genus (Bledius) in which some species are halobionts, some living in inland salt habitats, others in coastal salt habitats, and some in both.

There are more than 22 species of rove beetle that are well known and classified, but these are the most well known:

• Anthobium
  • Anthobium atrocephalum
  • Anthobium unicolor
• Atheta
• Autalia
  • Autalia rivularis
• Bolitobius
  • Bolitobius analis
• Bolitochara
  • Bolitochara obliqua
• Cypha
  • Cypha longicornis
• Gyrophaena
• Lesteva
  • Lesteva heeri
  • Lesteva punctata
• Lordithon
  • Lordithon thoracicus
• Megarthrus
• Mycetoporus
  • Mycetoporus brunneus
• Omalium
  • Omalium excavatum
  • Omalium rivulare
• Oxytelus
  • Oxytelus rugosus
• Philonthus
  • Philonthus fimetarius
  • Philonthus varius
• Platystethus
  • Platystethus arenarius
• Proteinus
  • Proteinus brachypterus
  • Proteinus ovalis
• Quedius
  • Quedius fumatus
  • Quedius lateralis
• Sepediphilus
  • Sepedophilus immaculatus
  • Sepedophilus pubescens
• Stenus
  • Stenus aceris
  • Stenus brunnipes
  • Stenus juno
  • Stenus similis
• Tachinus
  • Tachinus humeralis
  • Tachinus signatus
• Tachyporus
  • Tachyporus chrysomelinus
  • Tachyporus hypnorum
  • Tachyporus nitidulus
  • Tachyporus pallidus
• Xantholinus
  • Xantholinus glabratus

Staphylinids may be recognized by their unusually short elytra which expose up to 6 abdominal segments, and their bodies are usually elongate and parallel sided. Staphylinids may be distinguished from the Dermaptera which they resemble at first glance by their noticeable lack of cerci. They may further be noted from the Embioptera by their lack of an expanded tarsomere on the forelegs.

Staphylinids live in the compost of woodland, forest floors and grasslands. Staphylinids mainly concentrate in fallen decomposing fruits, the space under the loose bark of fallen and decaying tree, drifted plant materials on banks of rivers and lakes, and dung, carrion, and nests of vertebrate animals(for things like fleas). There are several hundred species of Staphylinids that live only on seashores, there are also some who are specialized to exist in nests of social insects (like ants); some that inhabit caves, underground burrows of vertebrate animals. Many Staphylinids coexist with mushrooms creating almost a symbiotic life system with them. Adults and even larvae of a few Staphylinids are associated with living flowers, including but not limited to involvement in the pollination of several species of flower. Still others climb on plants, especially at night, and hunt for prey. And mostly, their distribution in arid environments is restricted to moist microhabitats. In central Asia, where the sylvatic plague is endemic, some staphylinids are credited with suppressing flea populations, and thus help to suppress transmission of the plague.¹

• ¹http://eny3005.ifas.ufl.edu/lab1/Coleoptera/Staphylinid.htm
• http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Staphylinidae/staphylinidae.htm
• http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/misc/beetles/rove_beetles.htm
• http://esa.confex.com/esa/2001/techprogram/paper_505.htm