Brightly banded in red, black and yellow, the checkered beetle looks like a tiny piece of warning signage scuttling across a fallen log. A beetle that is a tiny enforcer. The striking patterns serve as disruptive camouflage, breaking up their silhouette as they hunt across textured bark. A bird looking for a meal might see nothing but patches of light and shadow. A beetle that hides in plain sight. Both adults and larvae are voracious predators of wood-boring beetles. They specialise in hunting the larvae of bark beetles and longhorn beetles that tunnel beneath the bark. These prey species can damage living trees, but the checkered beetle keeps their populations in check. It is a natural balance, a tiny enforcer maintaining order in the timber. Adults move with an erratic, high-speed scuttle that makes them difficult to catch. They run across bark surfaces, pausing to investigate cracks and crevices where prey might hide. When they detect a beetle larva beneath the surface, they use their powerful mandibles to tear through the bark and extract their meal. The larvae are even more specialised. They hatch from eggs laid in bark crevices and immediately begin hunting. They tunnel through the same galleries created by their prey, following the scent of wood-boring larvae. A single checkered beetle larva can consume dozens of bark beetle grubs before pupating. Checkered beetles are most active on sunny days when the bark warms up. The fallen log is sunny. The checkered beetle scuttles across the bark, red, black and yellow, a tiny warning sign. It finds a bark beetle larva, tears through the bark, eats it. It does not know it is an enforcer. It does not know it maintains order. It just wants to eat a grub. The best way to protect checkered beetles is to leave dead and dying trees standing, providing habitat for both predator and prey. The checkered beetle is proof.