Trogidae - Diet and Habitat

Diet and Habitat

Predators are rare due to Trogidae's habit of being covered with dirt and debris, and that when they are disturbed they have a habit of being motionless or faking death to avoid detection or being eaten. Their most common predators are birds since they tend to invade nests among other things.

The Trogidae family is predaceous in addition to being scavengers. The pupae, larval, and adult stages of life have all been documented to be cannibalistic. Because of this tendency, the adult beetles will postpone, or delay pupation in an effort to maintain their safety and find a safe pupation site. The adult hide beetle produces a pheromone in its feces that leads other adults and larvae to food sources. Studies have shown that this species is not cannibalistic due to over-crowding of populations, but just a food source preference.

Beetles of the Trogidae family have also been found to feed off of carcasses in the wild that have died and are decomposing. In one lab experiment done in 1998 by the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne, the hide beetle ate all tissues on a sheep carcass and left the bones.

When carcasses are not available their diet consists of eating the dry remains of dead mammals and birds in later to last stages of decomposition. Since they are usually the last at the scene, they can be found eating feathers, fur, skin, feces and anything else they can scavenge. Trogidae Omorgus candidus or any beetle in the family Trogidae is a scavenger type beetle that all have the same diet and predators for all in this family are the same.