Transvestite Rove Beetle

Description:

This is a large, predatory Staphylinid beetle that carries out 3 different kinds of mimicry!! and has the incredible name of "Transvestite Rove Beetle", and for a very good reason. It is 2 to 2.5 cm long, robust and hairy and covered with lumps and bumps. It is truly ugly and impressive.

Habitat:

Tropical forest along a river gorge in the Chorreadero Park, 10 km above Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico. It was found mostly on large, flat leaves. It is fast and flies readily. It can unfold its wings from under it's tiny reduced elytra so fast that it can't be seen doing it.

Notes:

This is an amazing beetle! It is a specialized predator of flies and will visit carrion, dung, rotting fruit and other stinky things to capture flies. It's first type of mimicry is to imitate bird droppings, and in fact the first time we saw it on leaves, that's what we thought it was. Incredibly, it also smears a dung-smelling liquid from it's pygidial glands onto the leaf and sits there like a bird dropping waiting for a fly to come investigate (See Pamsai's spotting of this beetle from Costa Rica smearing a leaf with its fly-attracting liquid http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/164...). The second type of mimicry it displays is that of a wasp. The tip of the tail is bright red or orange and is usually pointed upwards in a menacing manner, wasp-like or even scorpion-like. The wings are wasp-like when unfolded for flight (which is very fast) and the whole effect in flight is that of a wasp. A scary wasp. The wings are even colored similar to that of a wasp (see the last picture with the wings unfolded). The third type of mimicry is called reproductive mimicry and is the reason this beetle is called the transvestite rove beetle. There are large "butch" males which protect stinky fly-infestable sites to which females might come in order to have preferential mating privileges. Then there are small "feminine" males which imitate females in looks and behavior, in order to slip amongst the harem of females for mating, unnoticed by the large guardian males. This species has a distribution in tropical forests from central Mexico (along the gulf coast) through Chiapas and into Central America. It has been reported as far south as Argentina. http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2011/08/01/t.... http://scrubmuncher.wordpress.com/2010/0.... http://biostor.org/reference/77709.