Hairy Rove Beetle (NPS National Capital Region Beetle Species Guide)

Hairy Rove Beetle

Creophilus maxillosus

Summary ⁷

Creophilus maxillosus belongs to the order Coleoptera and is most commonly referred to as the hairy rove beetle. The rove beetles are a large family, having almost 2,900 species in North America. This species can be found in woods and wherever carrion is found, usually from the spring to autumn months. These active beetles fly swiftly or run rapidly over the ground with the tip of the abdomen raised like a scorpion's stinger. Although a few...

General description ⁸

The head and thorax of the larva are of dark red to dark brown color. Its abdomen is of a dirty gray to brown color (Voris, 1939). A mature larva is about 20 to 25mm in length and 3.5mm in width (Voris, 1939). Larvae are cylindrical and stout (Voris, 1939). The adult C. maxillosus is a large rove beetle with a size varying between 12 and 23mm (Arnett and Thomas, 2000). This shiny black species is characterized by the presence of yellow-gray setae on the posterior angles of the head and anterior angle of the pronotum (Arnett and Thomas, 2000). The yellow-gray setae are more obviously found on the 2nd and 3rd (sometime 4th) abdominal segments and on the elytra where they form wide variable bands encircling the body. Like the other species of the genus Creophilus, the disk of the pronotum and most of the disc on the neck are nearly free of punctures or setae (Smetana and Davies, 2000). The tarsal formula is 5-5-5 and the legs are entirely black. The antennae are composed of 11 segments.