Click beetle
Family of beetles / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Click beetles?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Elateridae or click beetles (or "typical click beetles" to distinguish them from the related families Cerophytidae and Eucnemidae, which are also capable of clicking) are a family of beetles. Other names include elaters, snapping beetles, spring beetles or skipjacks. This family was defined by William Elford Leach (1790–1836) in 1815. They are a cosmopolitan beetle family characterized by the unusual click mechanism they possess. There are a few other families of Elateroidea in which a few members have the same mechanism, but most elaterid subfamilies can click. A spine on the prosternum can be snapped into a corresponding notch on the mesosternum, producing a violent "click" that can bounce the beetle into the air.[3] Clicking is mainly used to avoid predation, although it is also useful when the beetle is on its back and needs to right itself. There are about 9300 known species worldwide,[4] and 965 valid species in North America.[5]
Click beetles | |
---|---|
Click beetle adults and larvae (wireworms) Left: Wheat wireworm (Agriotes mancus) Right: Sand wireworm (Horistonotus uhlerii) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Coleoptera |
Suborder: | Polyphaga |
Infraorder: | Elateriformia |
Superfamily: | Elateroidea |
Family: | Elateridae Leach, 1815 |
Subfamilies[1] | |
Agrypninae | |
Synonyms | |
Ampedidae |