Devil's Coach-horse Beetle
S3, Dorsal, black
Devil's Coach-horse Beetle
S3, Profile
| Devil's Coach-horse Beetle S3, Dorsal, black | | Devil's Coach-horse Beetle S3, Profile | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Beetles (Coleoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Rove Beetle (Staphylinidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Devil's Coach-horse Beetle (Creophilus erythrocephalus) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍S3, Dorsal, green🔎 | ||||
| Other names: | Rove Beetle, Devil's footman, Devil's coachman or Devil's steed | ||||
Thank you David (dmail) & Gordon Claridge for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere Variable in size, ~12 to ~17mm. While found around carrion (and toilets), they feed on fly larvae on dead animals. In South Australia, the size of the centre spot on the face is a good guide, as only the two Creophilus species (C. erythrocephalus & C. lanos) have been recorded here. Lorenzo Locati said "certainty of species ID comes from terminal segment, orange in lanio, black in erythocephalus". Vik Dunis says of C. erythrocephalus " Head spot: Circular, sharp edged. Elytra: Metalic-blue Tint Terminal Abdominal Segment: Black" Generally the Elytra colour is VERY difficult to pick up in photo's due to the poor colour depth of most commercial cameras. We've highlighted this with 3 different colours (blue, black & green) with 2 different specimens and 2 different cameras. | |||||
| |||||
| |||||