Devil's coach horse beetle
Black Moder beetle ( Ocypus olens )
The Black Moder beetle ( Ocypus olens ) is a beetle of the family of rove beetles ( Staphylinidae ).
- 4.1 Notes and references
- 4.2 Literature
Features
Black Moder beetles are with 22 to 32 millimeters in length, the largest Kurzflüglerart Central Europe. The beetle is colored completely matt black, the body is very dense point-like structured and black hairy. The posterior margin of the fifth abdominal segment exposed has a fine bright cutaneous rim on the top. The rails ( tibiae ) of the front legs bear on the outer edge off the tip of thorns. The membranous wings ( alae ) are formed.
Similar Species
A similar type is the Dark predatory beetles ( Ocypus tenebricosus ), the pronotum is longer than the elytra at the suture. The species is wingless. Can be confused with the kind of other species of the genus Ocypus, but these are all smaller.
Synonyms
- Ocypus fulvopilosus Fiori, 1894
- Goerius macrocephalus Stephens, 1832 ( homonym )
- Staphylinus major De Geer, 1774
- Ocypus meridionalis Fiori, 1894
- Staphylinus unicolor Fall, 1784
Occurrence and habitat
The beetles are widely used in Europe. They occur in different habitats, but preferably in moist forests and their edges and floodplains, but also in gardens, nations, and sometimes on dry slopes on. They live under dead wood, stones, in leaf litter and on paths.
Way of life
The Black Moder beetles feed on predatory. Likely risk of the animals spread their mandibles, with which they can bite firmly and stretch the abdomen forward, which is used to intimidate the attacker. You can also excrete with their white sack-shaped defensive glands on the abdomen of the end of a foul- smelling secretion. The larvae lead a similar lifestyle as the adult beetles.