By Cynthia Fong Muhlenberg College Class of 2015
Click. Click. Click. Nope, that’s not the person on
the computer next to you. I’m not talking about computer mice either, but about
the common brown click beetles you might find in or around your house on a hot
summer day.
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Chiswick Chap CC License Some Rights Reserved
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Click
beetles in other parts of the world can glow like fireflies. Unfortunately for
us in Eastern Pennsylvania, our resident click beetles are either a plain brown or just slightly more interesting in
appearance, some with fake eye spots and others that glow. Fortunately for us,
none of these insects are a threat to our health like some other disease-carrying arthropods are. As
we'll explore later, the adult form of this adorable insect doesn't feed on
much other than nectar, plant juices, and the larvae of some pest insects. Who
knew!
Among the
species of click beetles are a few that glow-
in Jamaica, depending on where you’re located on the island, the insects will
luminesce different colors! It even won Wired Magazine's Most
Extreme Insects award for "brightest,”
exuding the most light of any insect. In other parts of the world, these
bioluminescing insects are what are considered fireflies or lightning bugs— not the flashing beetles we observe at night here in
the Lehigh Valley.
If you've
never played with click beetles--again, harmless--all you have to do is (1)locate
a click beetle, (2) catch said beetle, (3) hold it gently by its head (or
body), and (4) listen to it click! click! to try to escape your grasp.
Entomologists--the
fine folk who devote their lives to studying insects so you don't have
to--believe that these beetles evolved clicking for two main reasons. The "clicking-jumping"
behavior allows the beetle to land back on its feet if it lands on its back (so
it doesn't have to stay stuck on its back like this
beetle is… he will become bird fodder for sure in no time
Familiar
with the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Eric Carle also wrote an arguably
much-less popular book called The Very Clumsy Click Beetle. Some
non-entomologist person animated the story and made the insect's FALSE
eyes into its REAL eyes. Otherwise, just another endearing tale of a click
beetle coming of age, learning how to use clicks to right itself.
In
addition to clicking when the insect is upside-down, the click mechanism also
works when the beetle is right side up. The insect does this by snapping the
spine under their thorax, flinging them into the air. Scientists believe that the click is used
to deter predators who may be startled by the sudden jolt... and corresponding
"CLICK"!
Some say
that the clicking allows the insect to escape their predator's grasp, while
others believe that this tactic allows the predator to be distracted for a
moment, giving the beetle time to run away. The jumping sure seems to be a nice
evolutionary trait. Click here if you're interested in the gory details
of how they click.
Found
from Florida to Quebec and as far west as Texas and South Dakota, these beetles
are especially abundant in woods with cherry, apple, oak, and other hardwood
trees. They are also commonly found in areas with rotting logs. Most active
between April and July, this species of beetle lives among over 900 other known
species of click beetles in North America, though click beetles are found all
around the world.
Their
larvae are commonly known as wireworms, and live in poorly drained soil,
feeding on the roots of plants in the forest. As adults, they inhabit different
ecological niches with the primary goal of reproducing-- thus, the adults eat little,
occasionally consuming wood-boring beetles, nectar, and plant juice.
And there
you have it! Everything you ever wanted to know about the click beetle. Now go
out and bait some of those lovely, clicking insects for yourself.
This post by Cynthia Fong is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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