Family
Staphylinidae (Rove beetles)
Ontholestes cingulatus. Photo: (c) Anthony Zukoff, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
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 abdomens exposed. With roughly 63,000 species in thousands of genera, the group is currently recognized as the largest extant family of beetles. It is an ancient group, with fossilized rove beetles known from the Triassic, 200 million years ago, and possibly even earlier if the genus Leehermania proves to be a…
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