Devil’s Coach Horse

bugman

October 3rd, 2008 at 7:54 am

Categories

Beetles

All black hard shelled with large mandables and stingers on tail.
We have been finding these bugs at my work for the last few weeks. I’ve lived here in Western Washington my entire life and never seen anything like this. It is a very aggresive bug, it has large mandables and its back end will curl up like a scorpion when aggrivated and it looks like two stingers potruding from its rear. It eats crickets with ease and also eats its own kind with out hesitation, but some good battles. Please let me know what it is. I don’t think its native, we receive alot of shipments from around the world.
Badest bug in the west
Northwest

Devil

Hi Badest,
Your beetle is known as a Devil’s Coach Horse, and it is an introduced species of Rove Beetle. Sometime in the 1930s, the species made its first appearance, expanding it original range from Europe. I cherish the Devil’s Coach Horse in my garden since they are one of the few predators that will eat snails and slugs. Despite the threat posture, there is no stinger and the Devil’s Coach Horse is not poisonous. The mandibles are strong, but will do little more than deliver a slight nip to a human. The Devil’s Coach Horse goes by the scientific name Ocypus olens.