notes

Many aleocharines have adapted to live

with ants, deceiving their aggressive hosts

with chemicals that fool the ant colony into

accepting them. The beetles are protected

by the ants, and eat detritus as well as the

ants’ food supplies and even the ant larvae

dead fungi, reedbeds, seaweed piles, and the nests of

birds and mammals. Adults are usually predators or

scavengers, but the larvae of many aleocharines are

parasitoids, a way of life unusual among beetles. The

larvae of the genus Aleochara bore into the pupae of

flies; they kill the developing fly and pupate in the fly

pupa, so one or more beetles hatch out instead of

a fly. Another species, the small Alaobia scapularis, has

recently been shown to develop as a parasite on the

larvae and pupae of the glowworm Lampyris noctiluca

in Britain and probably elsewhere. However, the

behavior and ecology of the vast majority of

the thousands of species remain unknown.

above | Aleochara bilineata An adult

beetle emerges from the pupal case of

a cabbage root fly. These beetles are

useful biocontrol agents against some

pest flies.

below | Lomechusoides strumosus

A European species that lives in the

nests of wood ants; clumps of hairs

called trichomes secrete chemicals

that help deceive their hosts.