A Winter Click Beetle?

I can't make this stuff up. Here I am just walking my neighborhood for exercise yesterday, as I try to do on a daily basis, and limping across the sidewalk comes a little (6-7 mm) click beetle. I put it in a vial, bring it home, and take a couple of pictures. Because I am curious, and I know that "bug folks" on Facebook are starved for stimuli during the winter, I post the images in a beetle group. How should I know that would be genuinely exciting?

My first stop online was the "Friends of Coleoptera [beetles] at the Natural History Museum" group on Facebook. The group is hosted by curators at the Natural History Museum in London, England, but beetle experts from all over the world are members of the group and always willing to help with identifications.

As luck would have it, one of my mentors from back when I was a teenager, and then at Oregon State University, is an expert on click beetles (family Elateridae). I knew this, and I knew he was in the Facebook group, but I had no idea when he would be online next, let alone looking at posts in the group. In a matter of minutes, he had put up a comment on my post that exceeded my wildest expectations:

"Anthracopteryx hiemalis. Super-nice find! This is a native winter-active species in a monobasic genus. It is endemic from Laramie south to Westcliffe in the Front Ranges. Never collected it myself."

Translation: This beetle is the only species in that genus, and it has a very restricted geographical range. You could have knocked me over with a feather. What I haven't told my friend yet is that this is actually the second specimen I have found, in the same stretch of sidewalk, under pretty much the same exact conditions. I didn't get around to imaging that first specimen until it was just about to expire, unfortunately, but here you go....

I certainly did not expect to get a species identification, but I took that and went over to Bugguide.net, the foremost online repository of images of North American insects, spiders, and other arthropods, to add my two images. Well, there weren't any others. There was not a species page to put them on. There was not even a page for the genus. Fortunately, I have volunteer editorial privileges, and so I was able to erect the appropriate pages and then put the pictures up. That kind of thing does not happen very often any more. Bugguide is damn comprehensive.

The lesson I learned, and should have learned long ago, actually, is that when it comes to entomology, you can never assume anything. You can never figure that what you observe and record has no significance. Sure, most of the time it won't be earth-shaking in any way. Then, one day when you don't bother making something public, you will be depriving the scientific community of something truly remarkable.

If anyone ever chastises you for sharing an observation of some "common" critter that you personally were unfamiliar with, then the shame is on them. We can all recall learning about a given organism for the first time, and how exciting that was. Scientists have no right to insult anyone for making an effort to learn, contribute, and otherwise share. Thankfully, there are few scholars that arrogant and disrespectful.

So, get out there on warm winter days and start looking for stuff! There are, no doubt, whole communities of winter-active organisms that we are overlooking.

Eyed Elaters

I am almost guaranteed to get at least one query every year about a large beetle with enormous eyes. The “eyed elaters” in the genus Alaus, family Elateridae, certainly are a curiosity, and thankfully harmless. This past week my wife and I were fortunate enough to encounter two specimens of the Eyed Click Beetle, Alaus oculatus, while we were in Georgia, just outside of Atlanta.

Alaus oculatus

There are currently six recognized North American species in the genus Alaus, five of which are discussed below. They are collectively found over most of the U.S. and southern Canada. All are large insects, active during the day or at dusk, and are strong fliers. Ironically, they seem far less ambulatory on their six legs. They are usually seen on logs, stumps, or tree trunks where they are surprisingly cryptic given their large size and striking eyespots. A motionless eyed elater is often nearly invisible.

Alaus oculatus from Georgia

Alaus oculatus varies from 24-44 millimeters in length, is bullet-shaped, and mottled black and white. This is the species most commonly encountered species in eastern North America, found from Quebec and Ontario south and west to Texas, the Dakotas, and eastern Colorado. They are sometimes attracted to aromatic solvents and fresh paint, scents that are also produced by freshly cut or downed trees.

Larvae of all Alaus species live in decaying wood where they prey on the larvae and pupae of other kinds of beetles. These giant “wireworms” have strong jaws and should be handled carefully, if at all.

Likely a young Alaus sp. larva

The “Blind Click Beetle,” A. myops (not illustrated), has much smaller eyespots than its cousin, and is mostly slate gray in color. Adults measure 19-42 millimeters. This is insect is most common in southern pine forests, but ranges from Quebec to Florida and west to Manitoba, Minnesota, Kansas, and Texas. Both adults and larvae are predatory and are found under loose bark on pine trees, logs, and stumps.

The western half of the continent has its own set of eyed elater species, including the Western Eyed Click Beetle, A. melanops. Its geographic distribution includes British Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, California, and New Mexico. Adults measure 20-35 millimeters. They resemble the Blind Click Beetle, but the ranges of the two species do not overlap.

Alaus melanops

Perhaps the most spectacular eyed elaters reside in the southwest U.S. The Zuni Click Beetle, A. zunianus, appears confined to Arizona. Note the eyespots are rounder than in other Alaus species, and the mottling is ivory or beige rather than stark white in many specimens. These are hefty insects, more robust than the others discussed so far.

Alaus zunianus

The Texas Click Beetle, A. lusciosus, is nearly identical to the Zuni Click Beetle, but it ranges from Texas to southern Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

Click beetles in general get their name from a peculiar behavior made possible by their body structure. Elaterids have a spine on the underside of the thorax that snaps into a groove on their “chest.” The beetles are so smooth, frequently covered in soft hairs of slick scales, that predators have a hard time grabbing the insects without the slippery, torpedo-shaped beetles escaping. However, should a bird or other animal manage to get a grip, the beetle snaps that spine into the groove with such force as to eject it from the predator’s grasp, or startle the attacker into dropping it.

Alaus lusciosus from Mission, Texas

It was formerly assumed that the clicking mechanism was used by the beetle to right itself should it land on its back….and indeed, the beetles do this as well. Smaller click beetles can vault themselves up to ten inches into the air in attempts to land on their feet. Oddly, the big eyed elaters can barely pop up an inch or two.

Keep an eye out for eyed elaters in your own region, especially during late spring and in June and July. At least some adults may overwinter in cavities in rotten wood, where they may be encountered at any time of year.

Sources: Arnett, Ross H., Jr., Michael C. Thomas, Paul E. Skelley, and J. Howard Frank (editors). 2002. American Beetles Vol. 2. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. 861 pp.
Bartlett, Troy, et al. 2012. “Genus Alaus,” Bugguide.net
Evans, Arthur V. 2014. Beetles of Eastern North America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 560 pp.