Hairy rove beetle
The hairy rove beetle is a long, shiny black beetle with patches of golden hairs. Its wing covers are so short that most of its body sticks out behind. When it runs, it lifts its tail up like a scorpion, but it has no sting.
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Fun facts
Its jaws are long and curved like needles and cross over in front of its head.
From egg to grown-up beetle takes only about 37 days.
If an ant bothers it, it touches the ant with the tip of its tail and wipes on a smelly liquid that drives the ant away.
Police scientists sometimes study these beetles to work out how long ago an animal died.
It is a fast runner and a quick flyer too.
Most asked questions about Hairy rove beetle
?Can a hairy rove beetle hurt you?
It can give a painful pinch with its jaws if you handle it, but it has no sting.
?What does the hairy rove beetle eat?
Fly maggots and dead animals. That makes it a helpful cleaner in nature.
?How big is a hairy rove beetle?
About 12 to 18 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Creophilus maxillosus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Staphylinidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Staphylinidae
- Lives on
- North America, Europe
Where the facts come from
- Creophilus maxillosus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Martin Andersson. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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