The creatures known as rove beetles seek out dead animals.
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The one shown on the right of the photo is among the largest and best-known Australian rove beetles, very distinctive for its orange-red head. About 15mm long, it has a small dark dot between its two dark eyes. The black body sometimes shows a blue gloss.
Also pictured in the photo is a nymph of the same species - quite a different looking uniform-coloured, flatter and wider creature with dark flanges or extensions on each of its body segments.
These creatures are mostly found under dead animals.
There they prey upon maggots and other insects. Their ant-like jaws testify to their grabbing and holding ability.
An observation last month revealed that the rove beetles were not shy, nor afraid of the light. They were actively moving on and under a drying carcass. Flies were attracted to the same spot, so the beetles probably had no shortage of food.
Rove beetles have small wings, hidden under the short wing-cases in the middle of the body.
They rarely fly, although they can do so quite well. Flying individuals are sometimes attracted to lights.
Their name is very appropriate, because they would need to roam or rove for some distance between one carcass and the next.
There are many similar species of rove beetles, with most being smaller and narrower than this red-headed one.
Many are all dark in colour, without the bright red or orange. Some of them run along with their tails in the air. Most have very short wing-covers, leaving more than half of their bodies unprotected. Some species look at first glance like earwigs as they run along.
CHERRY BALLART
A friend has successfully grown a few seedlings of cherry ballart, or wild cherry.
This species has long been regarded as difficult to grow, so a successful germination of several plants is of interest.
The cherry ballart is semi-parasitic, needing to attach its roots to those of other trees or shrubs for at least part of its life.
Because of this, the seedlings have been planted in with young eucalypts.
A nursery in the Bendigo district has grown several cherry ballarts this season.
A photo of one of them indicates that they have been struck from cuttings, rather than being grown from seed.
The cherry ballart is an attractive rather dense tree, quite different in appearance from the eucalypts with which it shares the forest.
It is often requested from nurseries, but it is rarely that any are available because of the difficulties of propagation.
NATURE QUERIES ANSWERED
Last summer we had a pair of goldfinches nesting in our rose arch. Will they come back to the same nest this year?
G.W., Ballarat East.
They will make a new nest later this year. Their old nest will have deteriorated and weakened by then, and the rose arch will have grown and changed shape too. The birds may judge it to be unsuitable this summer.
Most birds make a new nest every year. Exceptions are some birds of prey, and many birds that nest in hollows. Swallows sometimes re-use the same nest, but it has been known to topple over because the anchoring base was not renewed. Brolgas and swans sometimes use the same nest site, but not really the same nest.
It is no effort for a pair of goldfinches to make a new nest each year.
- Questions and photos are welcome. Send to Roger Thomas at The Courier, PO Box 21, Ballarat, 3353, or email to rthomas@vic.australis.com.au