What eats beetles?
Beetles, being the largest order of insects on Earth, occupy a vastly diverse set of ecological niches. There are so many different kinds of beetles that it is virtually impossible to point to a single critter and say ‘that critter eats beetles’, or ‘that critter is eaten by beetles’. Here are a few beetles and their food webby interactions: Wood boring beetles like Cerambycids and Buprestids burrow into dead or dying trees, their larvae chew extensive galleries under the bark. They are the favourite prey of creatures like woodpeckers, and ichneumonid wasps like Megarhyssa drill into the wood with their ovipositors to lay their parasitic young in the beetle larvae. Bark beetles (Scolytidae) and Ambrosia beetles also carve galleries under the bark of trees. Many carry specific species of fungus from tree to tree, which then infests the entire tree. The beetles feed on growing fungal mass. Some of the fungi, such as the one that causes Dutch Elm Disease, can be quite lethal to the tree.
