rove beetle

noun

: any of a family (Staphylinidae) of often predatory active beetles having a long body and very short elytra beneath which the wings are folded transversely

called also staphylinid

Illustration of rove beetle

Examples of rove beetle in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In appearance, rove beetles are small and drab insects that eat critters in leaf litter. —Viviane Callier, Scientific American, 27 Sep. 2023

But the rove beetles are much, much more diverse than the ants. —Viviane Callier, Scientific American, 27 Sep. 2023

The tiny rove beetle, no bigger than a grain of rice, looked dangerously exposed on the bottom of the glass dish in Joe Parker’s laboratory — and that was even before its fellow prisoner, an ant three times as big, advanced on it. —Quanta Magazine, 16 Aug. 2021

When the rove beetle lifts its abdomen and bends apart the segments, the reservoir opens and squirts the mixture at ants or other predators. —Quanta Magazine, 16 Aug. 2021

For protection, many rove beetle lineages independently evolved diverse defense glands that spray noxious chemicals from different points on their abdomen. —Quanta Magazine, 16 Aug. 2021

One of Andrew’s colleagues estimates that over 3 trillion insects from one family alone, the rove beetles, may have perished so far. —Matt Simon, Wired, 8 Jan. 2020

See More

Word History

Etymology

perhaps from rove entry 1

First Known Use

circa 1771, in the meaning defined above