All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Few of the 800 or so specvies of Click Beetles in North America are as dramatically adorned as the Eyed Click Beetle. Most are considerably smaller (a half-inch long or less) and without distinctive markings. Several uniformly brown or black species frequently are seen around porch lights at night.

Despite their differences in appearance, all Click Beetles have a startling behavior that demonstrates how they got their primary name--as well as the alternate epithets of "snapping beetle," "skipjack," and "spring beetle." When placed on its back--or when grabbed by an insectivore--a Click Beetle bends its head and prothorax backward and then straightens out suddenly with a snapping motion, which results in an audible click and launches the beetle several inches into the air. This stunt is facilitated by a spine on the underside of the prosternum that fits into a groove in the mesosternum (below).

Occasionally, a Click Beetle will take flight during its midair maneuver, but more often it simply falls back to earth. If it lands on its back the beetle may "click" again, or it may tightly tuck its legs and antennae and "play possum" until the predator loses interest. Eventually, it will wander off, perhaps looking for food (flower nectar or leaf sap) or a mate.

Click Beetles--like bees, ants, butterflies, and some other insect orders--undergo a four-stage (complete) metamorphosis that includes the egg, larva (AKA "grub"), pupa, and adult. Although adults are harmless, Click Beetle larvae cause significant agricultural and horticultural damage. Click Beetle grubs--also known as "wireworms" because of their elongated shape and hard exoskeletons (above right)--live in soil or dead wood for two to ten years, depending on the species. During that time, they chow down on roots and stems-- including those attached to corn, potatoes, tobacco, turf grasses, garden ornamentals, and a variety of legumes.

We don't grow any of these plants at Hilton Pond Center, of course, so we're content to let wireworms go about their subterranean business and, as they mature, to delight us with the acrobatic antics of adult Eyed Click Beetles.

Chestnut-sided Warbler--1
Magnolia Warbler--1
American Redstart--4
Black-throated Green Warbler--1
Chipping Sparrow--2
American Goldfinch--3
Canada Warbler--2
Eastern Phoebe--2
Blackpoll Warbler--2
Acadian Flycatcher--1
Black-and-white Warbler--2
Pine Warbler--1
Common Yellowthroat--1
Indigo Bunting--2
Red-eyed Vireo--4
Northern Waterthrush--3
Northern Cardinal--1
Gray Catbird--5
Wood Thrush--1
Eastern (Rufous-sided) Towhee--2*
Eastern Tufted Titmouse--1
Brown-headed Cowbird--1
Eastern Bluebird--9 (nestlings)
Swainson's Thrush--3
Gray-cheeked Thrush--1
American Robin--1

* = At least one Recent Fledgling

Swainson's Thrush
Distinct buffy eye-ring

Gray-cheeked Thrush
Eye-ring absent; face gray

Up to Top of Page

Back to This Week at Hilton Pond Center

Current Weather Conditions at Hilton Pond Center