Unicolour Hister Beetle

• It can fold its legs and antennae away completely into grooves in its own body, ending up like a smooth, hard seed that no predator can get a grip on.
• It is of interest in forensic entomology: its presence and stage of development help narrow down the time elapsed since death.
• It is a natural ally on livestock farms, where it cuts down fly populations without any need for insecticides.
• Although it lives in dung and carrion, it does not eat them: it is a predator, and what it hunts are the fly larvae that breed there.
• Its wing cases are short and leave the last two abdominal segments exposed, a diagnostic feature of the family along with its elbowed, clubbed antennae.
• Disturbed, it draws in its legs and lies still playing dead: it looks like a shiny black seed.
• Its predatory role makes it useful in the biological control of flies on livestock farms, and in forensic entomology, because it arrives at a body when fly larvae are abundant and that helps narrow down the time of death.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Dung, compost and decomposing carcasses

Sources consulted: Encyclopaedia Britannica · revisiones de biología de Histeridae · ZooKeys (2020) · NatureSpot, ficha Hister unicolor

Best time: Present all year, most frequent in summer