Nature Bulletin No. 446-A   February 26, 1972
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W. Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:CLICK BEETLE

Hardly a country boy or girl has not been entertained by the acrobatic 
performances of a long, straight-sided, short-legged beetle that they 
called a Click Beetle, Skipjack, Snapping Bug or Break-back. When 
one falls or is turned over on its back, it folds its legs, plays dead, and 
could easily be mistaken for a bit of wood. Then, slowly, it arches its 
hinged body like an air gun cocked by a boy, until, with a sharp click, it 
suddenly straightens and bounces several inches into the air. The click 
is made by a heavy spine, on the underside of the head end, which is 
withdrawn and snaps back into a socket just beyond the hinge. If the 
beetle lands right side up it scuttles away. If not, it tries again. 
Sometimes youngsters play a game to see which side will come up most 
often. A person picking up one of these insects is usually startled and 
lets go when it snaps. This may also serve as a protection from birds.

Click beetles are also called "elaters", a word best known to crossword 
puzzle fans. Several hundred species of them are known in the United 
States and about three thousand in the world. Most of our common ones 
are brown, gray or black and range from a quarter-inch to an inch in 
length. The largest and showiest of our native ones is the Eyed Elater 
which has two large velvety-black spots ringed with white -- like two 
glaring eyes. The true eyes are in the head which is sunk in a little notch 
at the front. The adult Eyed Elater reaches a length of two inches and 
comes from a larva that feeds on other insects in the decaying stumps of 
apple and other trees. In the tropics many click beetles are brilliant 
blue, green, yellow or red and a few shine at night. In some countries 
ladies wear them as ornaments and, at Coney Island, New York, they 
were once sold as novelties.

The larvae of click beetles are long, narrow, cylindrical, hard-shelled, 
shiny brown creatures commonly called wireworms. They are among 
the most destructive and widespread pests of farm crops, vegetables and 
flowers. Most wireworms live entirely in the soil where they destroy 
seeds, cut off small roots and stems, or bore holes in larger stems, roots 
and tubers. No crop is immune but potatoes, onions, corn, wheat, 
lettuce, beans, peas, sugar beets, tomatoes carrots and melons are 
particularly susceptible. Most kinds normally feed on the roots of native 
grasses and other plants but when they are deprived of their natural 
food they attack domesticated plants. Their damage is most severe 
during the first year or two after grassland has been put under 
cultivation. Until recent years, summer plowing and crop rotation were 
used to control them. Now, chemical insecticides are coming into 
increasing use.

The length of the life cycle, from the egg to the adult click beetle, is 
longer than that of most insects. For example, the adults of one common 
species become active and fly about in early spring. The tiny white eggs 
are laid in soil and the adults die soon afterward. In a few days or weeks 
the eggs hatch and the young wireworms feed until fall when they are 
about one-fourth of an inch long. At the end of three years most of them 
are full-grown and an inch long. During all this time they seldom move 
more than a few yards. Then, in midsummer, each transforms into a 
naked soft pupa in a hollowed out cell deep in the soil. After a few 
weeks the pupa changes again -- into an adult -- but remains in its cell 
until the following spring.

Did you ever play the game of tiddledy-winks ? Do you suppose it was 
invented by click beetles ?