How does a beetle procure its food?

Here is a little text about a beetle's diet because there are many types of beetles they all of different diets. I hope this may answer your question. I am sorry that it is very long but there are many many beetles.

Feeding on dead matterSaprophagous species - those that feed on dead plants or animals - live in leaf litter, rotting logs and animal carcasses. They include members of the genus Saphobius or dung beetles, which eat decomposing vegetation, and the tiny, beach-dwelling Phycosecis limbata, which scavenges washed-up carrion. Fungus feedersNumerous species are fungus feeders, many of which are found in the forest - like the tiny, spore-feeding mildew beetles, and members of the Ciidae family. Pinhole borers (also known as ambrosia beetles) are weevils that grow fungus in galleries which they form by boring into wood. They inoculate the wood with spores they carry in specialised cavities. Both adults and larvae eat the fungi. PredatorsPredatory beetles include most species of ground beetles. Among the most voracious of these are the tiger beetles, such as the boldly-patterned common tiger beetle or pāpapa (Cicindela tuberculata), often seen on clay banks. The adults are fast runners, darting about to catch prey in their massive, sickle-shaped mandibles. The larvae, in contrast, sit anchored to their burrows - heads near the entrance, jaws open - waiting to seize any prey that blunder past.

Other predators are the rove beetles, identified by their shortened elytra (hardened forewings) and flexible abdomens.

A few of New Zealand's beetles are parasitic, and in New Zealand two families - Bothrideridae and Rhipiphoridae - have species that parasitise wood-boring beetle larvae.

HerbivoresThe majority of beetles are herbivores - they only eat plants. They may eat leaves, stems or roots, or they may bore into wood. Dominant among the herbivores are the weevils, longhorns and leaf beetles.