Rove beetle
| Rove beetles Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Rove beetles of western Eurasia | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Polyphaga |
| Infraorder: | Staphyliniformia |
| Superfamily: | Staphylinoidea |
| Family: | Staphylinidae Latreille, 1802 |
| Genera | |
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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 over 66,000 species in thousands of genera, the group is one of the largest families in the beetle order, and one of the largest families of organisms. It is an ancient group that first appeared during the Middle Jurassic based on definitive records of fossilized rove beetles, with the Late Triassic taxon Leehermania more likely belonging to Myxophaga. They are an ecologically and morphologically diverse group of beetles, and commonly encountered in terrestrial ecosystems.
One well-known species is the devil's coach-horse beetle (Ocypus olens). For some other species, see list of British rove beetles.