Eyed Click Beetle, Home

As far as I'm concerned, no summer is complete without an appearance by the master deceiver known as the Eyed Click Beetle. I've already seen one or two of these remarkable insects, but they haven't hung around long enough to watch, let alone photograph. When I noticed this one in the air—they fly like overweight bumblebees—I didn't think the beetle would still be there after I raced inside and grabbed the dSLR with the macro lens hopefully attached. But, thanks be to the Lord of such things, I had the right stuff waiting for me on the counter... and the right beetle exhibiting rare cooperation. The insect, a member of the beetle family Elateridae, gets its name from the clicking noise it makes when it's flipped over, as well as from those huge eyespots on the back of its thoracic shield. (The scientific name, appropriately enough, is Alaus oculatus.) The "eyes," of course, are fake; if you look carefully just below the attachment points of the antennae you can see the real eyes. But if you were intent on eating a Click Beetle and it flashed those enormous orbs in your direction, you might be frightened, or, at least, startled enough to abandon pursuit. Sometimes, deceit does the trick.