The devil's coach-horse beetle (''Ocypus olens'') is a species of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

belonging to the large family of the

rove beetle The rove beetles are a family (Staphylinidae) of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra (wing covers) that typically leave more than half of their abdominal segments exposed. With roughly 63,000 species in thousands of genera, the ...

s (Staphylinidae). It was originally included in the genus '' Staphylinus'' in 1764,''Staphylinus olens'' in Fauna Europaea
/ref> and some authors and biologists still use this classification.

Etymology

The Latin species name ''olens'', meaning "smelling", refers to the two white stinking glands on the abdomen. This beetle has been associated with the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, hence its common name, which has been used at least since 1840. Other names include devil's footman, devil's coachman, and devil's steed. It is sometimes also known as the cock-tail beetle for its habit of raising its abdomen. One dictionary proposed the name developed in parallelism with ''

ladybird Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...

'' and its Norse cognates. In Irish, the beetle is called ' or '. The Irish also called it "the coffin cutter." British folklore has it that a beetle has eaten the core of Eve's apple, and that a person who crushes such beetle is forgiven seven sins.

Subspecies

Subspecies within this species include: *''O. o. azoricus'' (Méquignon, 1942) *''O. o. olens'' (O. Müller, 1764)

Distribution and habitat

These very common and widespread

s are present in most of Europe and in North Africa. They have also been introduced to parts of the United States and Canada, specifically

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and parts of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. They prefer areas with damp conditions and can be found from April to October in meadows, heath and moorland, woodlands, hedgerows, and parks and gardens. During the day, they commonly stay under logs, stones, or leaf litter.Buglife
/ref>

Description

It is a long-bodied, black beetle. At about , it is one of the larger British beetles. Its wing covers (

elytra An elytron (; ; , ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometimes alterna ...

) are short, covering only its

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...

, exposing the abdominal segments. The abdominal musculature is powerful and the abdominal segments are covered with sclerotized plates. It is capable of flight, but its wings are rarely used. It is covered with fine, black hairs. It is well known for its habit of raising its long and uncovered abdomen and opening its jaws, rather like a

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...

when threatened. Although it has no sting, it can give a painful bite with its strong, pincer-like jaws. It also emits a foul-smelling odour, as a defensive secretion, from a pair of white glands at the end of its abdomen.

Biology and diet

It is a predator, hunting mainly by night, feeding on a range of

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

, including

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

s, slugs, spiders, small moths, and

woodlice A woodlouse (plural woodlice) is an isopod crustacean from the polyphyleticThe current consensus is that Oniscidea is actually triphyletic suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda. They get their name from often being found in old wood. ...

, as well as

carrion Carrion () is the decaying flesh of dead animals, including human flesh. Overview Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters (or scavengers) include crows, vultures, c ...

. The prey is caught in the

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

s, which are also used to cut and together with the front legs to manipulate the food into a bolus. The bolus is repeatedly chewed and swallowed, emerging covered with a brown secretion from the foregut, until it is reduced to a liquid that is digested. Skin (in the case of earthworms) and hard materials (from

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

s) are left. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e are also carnivorous with similar eating habits.

Reproduction

''O. olens'' mates in autumn. Females lay their eggs from 2–3 weeks after first mating. They are large () and white with a darker band and laid singly in damp conditions under moss, stones, cow manure, or leaf litter. After around 30 days, the eggs split and the larvae emerge, white with a straw-coloured head.R. E. Orth, Ian Moore, T. W. Fisher & E. F. Legner. Biological Notes on Ocypus olens, a Predator of Brown Garden Snail, with Descriptios of the Larva and Pupa (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae). — Division of Biological Control, Citrus Research and Agricultural Experiment Station, University of California, Riverside, 1975. — pp. 292—298. The larva lives largely underground, and feeds on similar prey to the adult and has the same well-developed mandibles. It adopts the same display with open jaws and raised tail when threatened. The larva goes through three stages of growth (

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...

s), the final stage ranging from 20 to 26 mm in length. Around 150 days old, the larva pupates for about 35 days and emerges as an adult with its final colouring, fully formed except for the wings, which cannot be folded neatly beneath the elytra for several hours. Adults can survive a second winter, some by hibernating in burrows and not emerging until March, while others remain active.

Gallery

File:Staphylinus olens (=Ocypus) - Larva (2006-04-02).jpg, Larva File:Coach Horse BenPhil.jpg, Threat display File:Staphylinus olens glandulae.jpg, Adult showing the glands that emit a terrible smell. File:Staphylinus.olens.vs.lumbricus.terrestris.jpg, Adult attacking an earthworm File:Schwarzer Moderkäfer Ocypus olens.jpg, Threat display Escarabajo errante (Ocypus olens), Hartelholz, Múnich, Alemania, 2020-06-28, DD 476-494 FS.jpg, Detail, lateral view Escarabajo errante (Ocypus olens), Hartelholz, Múnich, Alemania, 2020-06-28, DD 512-524 FS.jpg, Detail, front view

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q855934 Staphylininae Beetles of Europe Beetles described in 1764 Articles containing video clips Taxa named by Otto Friedrich Müller