# Sweet Click Beetle

*Aeolus mellillus*

The rapid clicking mechanism accelerates the beetle at forces exceeding 100G, producing an audible 'snap' that startles potential predators.

- **Taxonomy:** Animalia › Arthropoda › Insecta › Coleoptera › Elateridae › Aeolus
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** stable
- **Biome:** grassland
- **Habitat:** Grassy fields, meadows, agricultural land, and suburban gardens.
- **Diet:** Adults feed on nectar, pollen, and plant sap; larvae (wireworms) feed on organic matter, roots, and small soil invertebrates.
- **Range:** North America, United States, Southern Canada
- **Size:** 5 to 8 mm (0.2 to 0.3 inches)
- **Lifespan:** 1 to 2 years
- **Active:** crepuscular
- **Threats:** Broad-spectrum chemical pesticide application and intensive soil tilling that disrupts larval development.
- **Safe to approach?:** Completely harmless to humans. If you find one on its back, place it on a flat surface to watch it perform its signature escape click to right itself. Handle gently and release into grassy vegetation.

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/dad35021-3429-4596-99af-2bbc7f353ef2
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/212571

- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/63430230/medium.jpg (Owen Strickland, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.