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Click Beetle

Limonius aurifer

Photo by beaker98
Published on Project Noah
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41.4805, -90.1568

Field Notes

Habitat:

Woodland habitat

Notes:

This is, by far, the smallest click beetle I have found at about 3mm. The really interesting thing was that it was eating the "guts" of a very tiny caterpillar that I didn't even see until I was looking in the view finder.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (4)
beaker98
Ah, Sergio! The plot does thicken! Thanks for helping me along on this one. Much appreciated.
Sergio Monteiro
From Wikipedia: "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." The mistery remains... :-)
beaker98
It certainly could Sergio. I tried to look for texture in the photo, but it seemed to be lacking. Your suggestion is much more scientific and logical than mine:) I was wondering if I hadn't squashed the little guy while turning the leaf over since I couldn't see him.
Sergio Monteiro
Nice find, Beaker. Couldn't it be that the beetle is eating the exuvia of the caterpillar on the left of the photo?

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Critters of the Midwest
Mission
Beetles!
Photographed
PublishedJune 5, 2014

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