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The Texas eyed click beetle was first described in 1832 by the English entomologist Frederick William Hope (1797-1862); the common eyed click beetle (A. oculatus) was first described in 1758 by the Swedish taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778). This beetle gets its name from the clicking sound the overturned beetle makes when it flips itself into the air and hopefully lands upright. P hoto by Sarah Rayner Click beetles are fascinating! According to bugguide.net, there are six Alaus species in North America, one, appropriately named Alaus myops. Although this Eyed Click Beetle (Alaus oculatus) looks ferocious with its large, black “eyespots” (actual eyes are below antennae), it is harmless to humans. Accordingly, eyespots are often dark in the center, strongly contrasting with a bright outer ring. It lives in deciduous forests, where the larvae grow in decaying logs, preying on longhorn beetle grubs. The eyed click beetle, Alaus oculatus (Linnaeus), reaches 1-½ inches in length and is beautifully marked with prominent oval eye spots on the pronotum and mottled gray wing covers. Other names include elaters, snapping beetles, spring beetles or skipjacks.

This beetle gets its name from the clicking sound the overturned beetle makes when it flips itself into the air and hopefully lands upright. Eyed Click Beetle. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Change ). Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Elateridae or click beetles (or "typical click beetles" to distinguish them from the related families Cerophytidae and Eucnemidae) are family of beetles. The click beetle is also “eye catching”.

The huge false eyespots make it readily identifiable; it is thought these startle predators into thinking they are confronting an … Found on my doorstep, photographed on a nearby dead and burnt tree. AE: Oh, they’re great. The click beetle is also “eye catching”. However, no behavioral data exists for click beetles to help understand functional significance of their eyespots.
In the former three cases, super black is presumed to enhance conspicuousness against adjacent color patches, while in the latter three it likely serves for camouflage. The beetle accomplishes this by snapping its fingerlike spine. Eastern-Eyed Click Beetle . The last idea has received much less discussion in the literature, but seems promising to me. The impressive Eastern Eyed Elater or Big-eyed click beetle (Alaus oculatus) fell onto a burdock leaf as the BugLady mowed the grass nearby. It has two large black eyespots, each one surrounded by … Together with the ironclad beetle (Zopherus nodulosus), eyed click beetles (Alaus oculatus) were the most iconic beetles for me growing up in Texas, so a few weeks ago in Missouri I was happy to find this click beetle right on my doorstep. (1) eyespots on nonvital body regions may redirect a predatory attack, (2) the sudden unveiling of eyespots may induce a startle response in a predator, (3) eyespots may increase the bearer’s apparent size, and (4) eyespots may convey to a predator that it has been spotted, reducing the predator’s motivation to continue its pursuit. Hopefully it can somehow realign itself, so it can go on to use its click when in peril. Normally the white scales fully encircle the eyespots, so it’s likely the beetle has escaped an attack from a predator. Alaus oculatus, commonly called the eastern eyed click beetle or eyed elater, is a species of click beetle. ( Log Out /  The eyed click beetle is found in the southern U.S. as far west as Texas. If you look closely at this beetle you will notice the white ring around each eyespot is incomplete. ( Log Out /  Eyed click beetles are no exception. Many hypotheses have been thrown around regarding the evolution of adaptive value of false eyespots in insects, e.g. While handling the beetle, I noticed it actually couldn’t ‘click’ when flexing its body, and while feeding the beetle it would curiously bend its body repetitively as if trying to click. In fact, the composition of the eyespots differ dramatically from the rest of the beetle’s black body, achieving almost complete absorption of light (~96%). Like all members of the click beetle, or Elateridae, family, it gets its name from the sound it makes when it flips itself upright. There are a few other families of Elateroideain which a few members have the same mechanism, but most elaterid subf… This family was defined by William Elford Leach (1790–1836) in 1815. At up to 2 inches long, it is one of the largest known "click" beetles in the family Elateridae. ( Log Out /  Some people know them as skipjacks too. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. The beetle accomplishes this by snapping its fingerlike spine.
The presence of super black coloration is present across the animal kingdom, for instance in birds of paradise, jumping spiders, butterflies, stick insects, vipers, and deep-sea fishes— all of which are achieved through varying, though similar, structural architectures. It’s likely the hinge mechanism between the pronotum and abdomen was damaged. The bite had left an unbroken red welt, … The impressive Eastern Eyed Elater or Big-eyed click beetle (Alaus oculatus) fell onto a burdock leaf as the BugLady mowed the grass nearby. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. A member of the housekeeping staff at this retirement community had been bitten by one of the beetles. The adults can be 1¾ inches long.

( Log Out /  And it’s really impressive when you hold an eyed click beetle, if you hold them carefully by the lower portion of their body, you can see their fore-body snapping back and forth, and it makes a very loud click. When placed on their backs, these beetles characteristically “click”, snapping their thoracic segments (prothorax and mesothorax) to cause their bodies to flip in the air to right themselves. According to bugguide.net, there are six Alaus species in North America, one, appropriately named Alaus myops. Eyed click beetles are no exception. Cone-shaped microstructures are arranged vertically within the eyespots to effectively scatter incident light and increase the amount of light transmitted into the cuticle. A natural history blog by Christian Alessandro Perez-Martinez. SC: Well, I’ve had them click right out of my hand.

They are a cosmopolitan beetle family characterized by the unusual click mechanism they possess. The eyespots on the pronotum make predators hesitate to attack. In predatory sea-fishes that hunt using bioluminescence, densely-packed melanosomes in the epidermis minimize reflectance from their own light lure to hide their bodies in the dark depths.. how cool is that! Cone-shaped microstructures are arranged vertically within the eyespots to effectively scatter incident light and increase the amount of light transmitted into the cuticle. So, the click beetle’s body glints in the sunlight when viewed at an angle, but the eyespots remain uniformly black. In fact, the composition of the eyespots differ dramatically from the rest of the beetle’s black body, achieving almost complete absorption of light (~96%). This results in a black coloration that appears more black than what would be produced simply from pigments such as melanin— termed “super black.” Not only is super black darker than pigment-based blacks, but it also vastly reduces specular reflection when light hits the surface at an angle. The eyed click beetle, or eyed elater, is common in the eastern part of our country. For all of these potential explanations, it is advantageous for eyespots to be as noticeable as possible to effectively grab a predator’s attention. This species is easily recognizable from its two large eyespots on the pronotum. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account.

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