The Horned Fungus Beetle grows to about half an inch long. It is dark brown or black, and very rough. Males and females are easy to tell apart. Males have two long "horns" projecting from their heads, with one shorter, forked horn in the middle, down near the mouth. Female Horned Fungus Beetles have no horns. She does have small bumps on her head.

These beetles are found in the woods. They eat mostly fungus, but they also eat dead and dying tree trunks. After mating, the female Horned Fungus Beetle lays eggs inside, or on top of, fungus. The eggs hatch into larvae which eat the fungus. They then become pupae (resting stage) inside the fungus or in the soil near the fungus. Adults hatch from the pupae in the summer. These beetles use many different fungi, especially polypore fungi, such as Mossy Maple Polypore and Crowded Parchment. If disturbed, Horned Fungus Beetles will play dead and stay motionless, trying to resemble rotted wood. They also release a foul-smelling chemical if they feel the warm breath of a mammal.

Horned Fungus Beetles help fungi by carrying spores to new places. Mushroom spores are like the seeds of a plant. When a beetle climbs around the gills of a mushroom, spores stick to its body. Later the spores can grow into new fungi in a new place.

Relationships in Nature:

FOOD	PREDATORS	SHELTER	OTHER
Mossy Maple Polypore	Pileated Woodpecker	Mossy Maple Polypore	Death Cap D
Crowded Parchment	Downy Woodpecker	Crowded Parchment	Crowded Parchment D
Oyster Mushroom	Least Shrew	Oyster Mushroom	Oyster Mushroom D
Elegant Stinkhorn	Wild Turkey	Elegant Stinkhorn	Mossy Maple Polypore D
Honey Mushroom	Five-lined Skink	Virginia Creeper	Elegant Stinkhorn D
Turkey Tail	American Toad	Poison Ivy	Honey Mushroom D
Jack O'Lantern	Red-backed Salamander	Honey Mushroom	Turkey Tail D
Meadow Mushroom	Rabid Wolf Spider	Bracken Fern	Jack O'Lantern D
Pear-shaped Puffball	Goldenrod Spider	Red Clover	Meadow Mushroom D
Death Cap	Common Black Ground Beetle	Turkey Tail	Artist's Conk D
Mossy Maple Polypore	Daring Jumping Spider	Meadow Mushroom
Artist's Conk	Garden Centipede	Pear-shaped Puffball
	Spring Peeper	Death Cap
	Ring-legged Earwig	Mossy Maple Polypore
	Three-lined Salamander	Japanese Honeysuckle
	Six-spotted Tiger Beetle	Artist's Conk
		Wild Strawberry
		Common Greenshield

Relationship to Humans:

Horned Fungus Beetles help people by helping to break down old, rotted wood. Even though they eat fungi, which are also helping break down old wood, they don't appear to do it much harm. If handled, they may let out a bad-smelling chemical.

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION

KINGDOM Animal PHYLUM Arthropod CLASS Insect ORDER Coleoptera FAMILY Tenebrionidae GENUS Boliotherus SPECIES Boliotherus cornutus

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