Click Beetle

Facts about Click Beetles, "Scientific name for Click Beetle is Elateridae". Unlike most beetles, the adult Click Beetles can turn their backs and upright themselves. This ability is what gives the Click Beetles their name. Their flexibility is due to the juncture found between the prothorax and mesothorax.

Attributes of Click Beetles

A large spine that extends backwards from the prothorax on the underside fits into a groove in the front part of the mesothorax. Placed on its back, the Click Beetle forces the prothorax to move downwards until the spine slips out of the groove leading to projection of the prothorax which acts like a downward springboard making the Click Beetle flip into the air. Their name comes from the clicking sound the spines makes when slipping from the groove click.

Habitat of Click Beetles

When the weather is hot, the Click Beetles may enter people’s houses through the windows or entries left open. Most of the Click Beetle are small to medium size which is less than an inch and dull in color although others are large and very aesthetically pleasing. The adult click beetles, in some areas, have a certain economic importance. This is typically the phytophagus species and is a nocturnal. Wireworms, Click Beetle, larvae, are usually phytophagus with some species being predators to other insects. Some of the species, however, are serious agricultural pests. Other species, in both their larvae and adult stages, are bioluminescent.

Reproduction of Click Beetles

The larvae is somewhat flattened or cylindrical, slender, elongate and relatively hard shelled. On the thoracic segments, the Click Beetle has three pairs of legs, usually short legs. In some species, the last abdominal segment (which is directed downwards) serves as a terminal proleg.

Wireworm becomes a Click Beetles
when Three to four years of the wireworm’s life is spent in the soil feeding on the plants roots causing damage to agricultural crops such as wheat, corn, strawberry and potatoes. They are also known to feed on decaying vegetation. Normally, farmers say that it becomes very hard to exterminate the wireworms once they have begun to attack a crop because of their subterranean habits, their extraordinary ability to recover from illness induced by exposure to insecticide, and also their ability to locate food quickly by following gradients of carbon dioxide in the soil produced by plan materials.

The Click Beetle Importance

The wireworms can injure the roots of multiple plants within a short period of time. This is because since they can easily pass through the soil due to their shape and their tendency to follow the preexisting burrows formed by other worms or burrowing animals. It takes a long time to exterminate the damaging populations of wireworms in the field because of their relatively long cycle thus making crop rotation an important tool to control wireworms. They tend to increase rapidly in small grains (wheat and barley), truck crops and in red and sweet clover. In recently plowed fields, birds feeding destroy many wireworms.

A thrifty and clean stand of alfalfa maintained for three to four years is known to significantly reduce the numbers of wireworms. Since wireworms do well in moist soil and that alfalfa is a good soil drying crop. Its production in a wireworm infested field is a very successful method of controlling the pest.
"Scientific name for beetle is Coleoptera".