Click beetle
| Click beetles | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Click beetle adults and larvae (wireworms) Left: Wheat Wireworm (Agriotes mancus) Right: Sand Wireworm (Horistonotus uhlerii) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Superfamily: | Elateroidea |
| Family: | Elateridae Leach, 1815 |
| Subfamilies | |
|
Agrypninae | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Campylidae | |
Insects in the family Elateridae are commonly called click beetles (or "typical click beetles" to distinguish them from the related Cerophytidae and Eucnemidae). 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 closely related families in which a few members have the same mechanism, but all elaterids 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.[1] 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,[2] and 965 valid species in North America.[3]
Description and ecology
Click beetles can be large and colorful, but most are under 2 centimeters long and dull in coloration and patterning. The adults are typically nocturnal and phytophagous, but rarely of economic importance. On hot nights they may enter houses, but are not pests. Click beetle larvae, called wireworms, are usually saprophagous, living on dead organisms, but some species are serious agricultural pests, and others are active predators of other insect larvae. Some elaterid species are bioluminescent in both larval and adult form, such as those of the genus Pyrophorus.
Larvae are slender, elongate, cylindrical or somewhat flattened, with relatively hard bodies, somewhat resembling mealworms. The three pairs of legs on the thoracic segments are short and the last abdominal segment is, as is frequently the case in beetle larvae, directed downwards and may serve as a terminal proleg in some species. The ninth segment, the rearmost, is pointed in larvae of Agriotes, Dalopius and Melanotus, but is bifid due to a so-called caudal notch in Selatosomus (formerly Ctenicera), Limonius, Hypnoides and Athous species.[4] The dorsum of the ninth abdominal segment may also have sharp processes, such as in the Oestodini, including the genera Drapetes and Oestodes. Although some species complete their development in one year (e.g. Conoderus), wireworms usually spend three or four years in the soil, feeding on decaying vegetation and the roots of plants, and often causing damage to agricultural crops such as potato, strawberry, corn, and wheat.[5][6] The subterranean habits of wireworms, their ability to quickly locate food by following carbon dioxide gradients produced by plant material in the soil,[7] and their remarkable ability to recover from illness induced by insecticide exposure (sometimes after many months),[8] make it hard to exterminate them once they have begun to attack a crop. Wireworms can pass easily through the soil on account of their shape and their propensity for following pre-existing burrows,[9] and can travel from plant to plant, thus injuring the roots of multiple plants within a short time. Methods for pest control include crop rotation and clearing the land of insects before sowing.
Other subterranean creatures such as the leatherjacket grub of crane flies which have no legs, and geophilid centipedes, which may have over two hundred, are sometimes confounded with the six-legged wireworms.
Selected genera
- Actenicerus
- Adelocera
- Adrastus
- Aeoloderma
- Aeoloides
- Aeolus
- Agriotes
- Agrypnus
- Alaus
- Ampedus
- Anchastus
- Anostirus
- Aplotarsus
- Athous
- Berninelsonius
- Betarmon
- Brachygonus
- Brachylacon
- Calambus
- Cardiophorus
- Chalcolepidus
- Cidnopus
- Conoderus
- Craspedostethus
- Crepidophorus
- Ctenicera
- Dacnitus
- Dalopius
- Danosoma
- Denticollis
- Diacanthous
- Dicronychus
- Dima
- Drasterius
- Eanus
- Ectamenogonus
- Ectinus
- Elater
- Elathous
- Eopenthes
- Fleutiauxellus
- Haterumelater
- Hemicleus
- Hemicrepidius
- Heteroderes
- Horistonotus
- Hypnoidus
- Hypoganus
- Hypolithus
- Idolus
- Idotarmonides
- Ischnodes
- Isidus
- Itodacne
- Jonthadocerus
- Lacon
- Lanelater
- Limoniscus
- Limonius
- Liotrichus
- Megapenthes
- Melanotus
- Melanoxanthus
- Metanomus
- Mulsanteus
- Negastrius
- Neopristilophus
- Nothodes
- Oedostethus
- Orithales
- Paracardiophorus
- Paraphotistus
- Peripontius
- Pheletes
- Pittonotus
- Pityobius
- Plastocerus
- Podeonius
- Porthmidius
- Procraerus
- Prodrasterius
- Prosternon
- Pseudanostirus
- Pyrophorus
- Quasimus
- Reitterelater
- Selatosomus
- Sericus
- Simodactylus
- Spheniscosomus
- Stenagostus
- Synaptus
- Tetrigus
- Zorochros
Notes
- ↑ How the click beetle jumps from the back !. Myrmecofourmis.fr on Youtube. 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
- ↑ Schneider, M. C.; et al. (2006). "Evolutionary chromosomal differentiation among four species of Conoderus Eschscholtz, 1829 (Coleoptera, Elateridae, Agrypninae, Conoderini) detected by standard staining, C-banding, silver nitrate impregnation, and CMA3/DA/DAPI staining". Genetica 128 (1–3): 333–346. doi:10.1007/s10709-006-7101-5. PMID 17028962.
- ↑ Majka, C. G. and P. J. Johnson (2008). "The Elateridae (Coleoptera) of the Maritime Provinces of Canada: faunal composition, new records, and taxonomic changes" (PDF excerpt). Zootaxa 1811: 1–33.
- ↑ van Herk, W. (March 12, 2009). "Limonius: wireworm research site". Retrieved January 22, 2011.
- ↑ R. S. Vernon, W. van Herk, J. Tolman, H. Ortiz Saavedra, M. Clodius & B. Gage (2008). "Transitional sublethal and lethal effects of insecticides after dermal exposures to five economic species of wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae)". Journal of Economic Entomology 101 (2): 365–374. doi:10.1603/0022-0493(2008)101[365:TSALEO]2.0.CO;2. PMID 18459400.
- ↑ William E. Parker & Julia J. Howard (2001). "The biology and management of wireworms (Agriotes spp.) on potato with particular reference to the U.K.". Agricultural and Forest Entomology 3 (2): 85–98. doi:10.1046/j.1461-9563.2001.00094.x.
- ↑ J. F. Doane, Y. W. Lee, N. D. Westcott & J. Klingler (1975). "The orientation response of Ctenicera destructor and other wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae) to germinating grain and to carbon dioxide". Canadian Entomologist 107 (12): 1233–1252. doi:10.4039/Ent1071233-12.
- ↑ W. G. van Herk, R. S. Vernon, J. H. Tolman & H. Ortiz Saavedra (2008). "Mortality of a wireworm, Agriotes obscurus (Coleoptera: Elateridae), after topical application of various insecticides". Journal of Economic Entomology 101 (2): 375–383. doi:10.1603/0022-0493(2008)101[375:moawao]2.0.co;2. PMID 18459401.
- ↑ Willem G. van Herk & Robert S. Vernon (2007). "Soil bioassay for studying behavioral responses of wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae) to inecticide-treated wheat seed". Environmental Entomology 36 (6): 1441–1449. doi:10.1603/0046-225X(2007)36[1441:SBFSBR]2.0.CO;2. PMID 18284772.
References
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wireworm". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.- Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Click Beetle". Encyclopedia Americana.
External links
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Media related to Elateridae at Wikimedia Commons 
Data related to Click beetle at Wikispecies- Elateridae. Click Beetles of the Palearctic Region.
On the University of Florida / Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Featured Creatures website:
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