Abstract
The feeding ecology of Scarites aterrimus Morawitz (Coleoptera: Carabidae), an endangered shore-inhabiting species, was studied by field observations and laboratory experiments. S. aterrimus adults fed on a dead Anisolabis maritima (Bonelli) earwig and dead Armadillidium vulgare (Latreille) pill bug on a beach at night in central Japan. In the laboratory, the adults frequently fed on the carcasses of an earwig, the maggots of the fly species Phaenicia sericata (Meigen), the sandhopper Platorchestia joi Stock & Biernbaum and the pill bug A. vulgare. Predatory behavior was restricted to live fly larvae and pill bugs, occasionally live earwigs and sandhoppers. Similar results were obtained for S. aterrimus larvae. S. sterrimus seems to be a scavenger of various invertebrates and also a predator of slow-moving, less-defended invertebrates.
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