of invertebrates, including worms, slugs, spiders, small moths, and woodlice, as well as carrion. The prey is caught in the mandibles, which are also used to cut and together with the front legs to manipulate the food into a bolus. The bolus is repeatedly chewed and swallowed, emerging covered with a brown secretion from the foregut, until it is reduced to a liquid that is digested. Skin (in the case of earthworms) and hard materials (from arthropods) are left. The larvae are also carnivorous with similar eating habits. Reproduction O. olens mates in autumn. Females lay their eggs from 2–3 weeks after first mating. They are large () and white with a darker band and laid singly in damp conditions under moss, stones, cow manure, or leaf litter. After around 30 days, the eggs split and the larvae emerge, white with a straw-coloured head. The larva lives largely underground, and feeds on similar prey to the adult and has the same well-developed mandibles. It adopts the same display with open jaws and raised tail when threatened. The larva goes through three stages of growth (instars), the final stage ranging from 20 to 26 mm in length. Around 150 days old, the larva pupates for about 35 days and emerges as an adult with its final colouring, fully formed except for the wings, which cannot be folded neatly beneath the elytra for several hours. Adults can survive a second winter, some by hibernating in burrows and not emerging until March, while others remain active. Gallery References Staphylininae Beetles of Europe Beetles described in 1764 Articles containing video clips Taxa named by Otto Friedrich Müller