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Animalia >Arthropoda >Insecta >Coleoptera >Staphylinidae >Oligota >

The rove beetle feeds preferentially on eggs of the citrus red mite. The reference is especially strong in larval beetles and they eat several tens of eggs per day. When mite eggs consumed by beetle larvae are seen under SEM, each egg has a pair of holes made by larval mandibles. The mouthpart of larval beetle has a process that is suitable for sucking rather than chewing prey. A beetle larva under a dissecting microscope is moving its head from left to right and trying to dig holes in an egg. Once holes are dug, the larva starts sucking the egg contents. You can see the reddish egg contents moving from the mouth to stomach. The larva then regurgitates the stomach contents into the mite egg. Regurgitate fills the egg and digests its contents, and the larva sucks the egg contents again. The larva repeats this process until all egg contents are consumed, when the egg becomes transparent. It takes a larva 20-30 seconds to consume one egg. External digestion using saliva is reported for kissing bugs, larvae of Pompilid wasps and fireflies. However, they rarely accomplish rapid digestion of whole prey as is seen in the beetle larvae. Limited digestion by saliva in these species my not be a true external digestion.

(Data No.momo050102ok01b)

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