The true eyes of the Eyed Click Beetle are much smaller and located at the bases of its heavily sawtoothed antennae (below left). Comments or questions about this week's installment?
Acadian Flycatcher--1
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American Goldfinch--3
by Bill Hilton Jr., executive director of
Adults are often … Please enroll by going to the iGive Web site; more than 200 members have signed up to help. Click beetles possess a spine-like structure as…
Eastern Bluebird--9 (nestlings)
Eastern Tufted Titmouse--1
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Magnolia Warbler--1
A Beetle that Knows how to Click THE EYED CLICK BEETLE. Few of the 800 or so species of Click Beetles in North America are as dramatically adorned as the Eyed Click Beetle. Larvae of the Eastern-eyed Click Beetle are called 'wireworms' and live in decaying plants. Eventually, it will wander off, perhaps looking for a little sustenance (flower nectar or leaf sap) or a mate.
Chipping Sparrow--2
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Despite their differences in appearance, all Click Beetles have a startling behavior that demonstrates how they got their primary name--as well as the alternate epithets of "snapping beetle," "skipjack," and "spring beetle." Some click beetles are large and colorful, but most are under 2 centimeters long and brown or black, without markings. E-mails from hiltonpond.org. See list of recent supporters below. If it lands on its back the beetle may "click" again, or it may tightly tuck its legs and antennae and "play possum" until the predator loses interest. Nature Study Network, Search Engine for
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The eyed click beetle is found in the southern U.S. as far west as Texas. Sometimes when we go to the woods around Hilton Pond Center, we get the eerie feeling that someone--or something--is watching US while we're watching nature. Brown-headed Cowbird--1
Intensity of yellow varies
Black-and-white Warbler--2
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There are six related species of click beetles in the US, of which the Eastern Eyed Click Beetle can be recognized by its black white and grey colors, as well as large black eyespots The Eastern Eyed Click Beetle is mostly encountered in all the American states east of the Great Plains and up north into Canada.
We don't grow any of these plants at Hilton Pond Center, of course, but we do have plenty of old wood and wood-boring insects, so we're content to let our local wireworms go about their subterranean business and, as they mature, to delight us with the acrobatic antics of adult Eyed Click Beetles. Wireworm photo courtesy Charlie E. Rice, All contributions are tax-deductible
Red-eyed Vireo--4
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