Image Credit: Katja Schulz
Rove beetles (Staphylinidae: Omaliinae) – predators. These are denizens of the soil as larvae and probably primarily predate upon springtails and fly larvae. This subfamily is very diverse in the PNW, and unlike most other subfamilies visits flowers in abundance in order to mate (and probably to nectar as well). They pollinate salmon-berry (Rubus spectabilis), possibly skunk-cabbage (Lysichiton) and other forest-floor species whenever bumblebees are absent.
Rove-beetles are characterized by extremely short elytra which cover up the super-folded flying wings. The Omaliinae are distinguished usually by usually having ½ length elytra and 3 ocelli (“simple eyes”) on the top of the head (absent in all the other rove-beetles).