Staphylinidae composition was compared in a forest of the “Canon del rio Barbas” and the “Sendero Cedro Rosado” suburban secondary forest, using carrion traps and visual screening of 1 m2 of leaf litter. These methods were interspersed among three 2 x 100 m transects, for a total of 66 sampling units. A total of 801 individuals, 79 morphospecies, 47 genera and 8 subfamilies were collected. The most abundant subfamilies were Aleocharinae (25.3%), Pselaphinae (17.7%), Staphylininae (15.2%) and Paederinae (12.6%). Although the Canon del rio Barbas had the highest richness (44 species), there were no significant differences in species richness (U=-1.22, p=0.21) and abundance (Z=-0.835, p=0.403) between forests. Said information was supported by the Jaccard and Sorensen- quantitative similarity indexes. The carrion traps and leaf litter show significant differences (U=4.67, p=0.0002), since the number of exclusive species in each method was higher than the number of shared species. This study constitutes the first contribution on rove beetle diversity in the department of Quindio.