I dug up some earth to place in a dung beetle container and noticed this little guy running around over the surface. After the photo shoot I put him in with some rove beetles about the same size, wondering how they'd get along.

In a split second one of them pounced on the larva, grabbing it in the top of the pronotum. I failed in my attempts to separate them with my forceps till I thought of dunking them in water and holding them under. Finally the rove beetle let go, but I saw that the larva , while still able to run around, had flesh exposed and would probably not survive.

I put him back in the rove beetle container and another rove of the same species grabbed him in the same place.

Why did the roves pounce so quickly? Are carabid larvae their natural, instinctive food source? Or did they recognize that the larva was a formidible enemy with a wicked set of mandibles that must be dealt with at once or risk being eaten by it?