The Devils Coach Horse

Nora Peters recently photographed this Rove Beetle on the edge of Melton, as well as these Cup Moth eggs and hatchlings:

‘The Devil’s Coach-horse Beetle was having a swim in the horse trough when I went over to check the level, fished it out and was excited as haven’t seen this species for quite a while J managed to get a few photos whilst it recovered and then it fell off the trough on to the ground and scurried away!

The Cup Moths have been around my back door over the last few weeks, they have even laid eggs on the glass and window sills but this sac was down the front on a Wattle tree. I thought the Sac looked like a ‘Teddy Bear’s’ face so took a few photos at different angles ….. but when I down-loaded discovered the hatchlings.’

Nora Peters also photographed this Rove Beetle, also on the edge of Melton, in 2010

“Last night when I was going to put the horses in I found this strange looking Beetle running across the concrete path……when I got the camera out it rolled over and played dead……then it got up, it held its tail-end up like an earwig and then ran away…not before I got some pics!.”

  Rove Beetles (Staphylinae) are usually carrion eaters. They are often seen if you turn over a dead animal! Nora discovered that they are also known as “the Devils Coachman”.

According to Wikipedia:

“This beetle has been associated with the Devil since the Middle Ages, hence its common name. Other names include Devil’s footman, Devil’s coachman and Devil’s steed. In Ireland the beetle is known as a deargadaol (literally Devil’s beast) and it is said that the Devil assumes the form of this beetle to eat sinners. As with many supposed bringers of ill-luck superstition holds that people can turn the creature’s powers to their own advantage and it is said that reapers used to enclose the body of a Devil’s coach horse beetle in the handle of their scythes to improve their skill.

The origins of these beliefs can perhaps be explained by the beetle’s threatening appearance, and its habit of eating carrion. The beetle is featured prominently in the sciencefiction/ horror novel “The Devil’s Coach Horse” (known as “The Black Horde” in North America) by Richard Lewis. In the novel an evolved and flesh hungry type of the beetle is unknowingly released in Great Britain and the United States.”

Rove Beetles are also useful to forensic scientists, when ascertaining time of death of corpses, according to Western Australia’s Dept of Agriculture:

agspsrv34.agric.wa.gov.au/ento/forensic.htm;

 Rather than just being known as boring old carrion eating beetles, they have quite a diabolic reputation (probably underserved)! The Devils Coach Horse is a much more impressive sounding name than plain old Rove Beetle.