biomechanics and behavior of squeezing through small openings

I saw this weird beetle fly past today, which stumped me because I don’t recall ever seeing anything quite like it. It superficially resembled a darkling beetle (Tenebrionidae), but had strange mouthparts, it flew readily and was capable of climbing smooth surfaces unlike any darkling beetle I’ve ever seen.

after digging through Bugguide for a while I determined that it’s Melandrya striata, a member of the small family Melandryidae, or false darkling beetles. There’s not much info about it except that its larvae feed in rotting logs and it is the only North American representative of a genus that’s more diverse in Eurasia.

you might think that when photographing an insect like this Brachycerus barbarus your priorities should be nonsense like "capturing diagnostic features" or "making the photo look good" but actually the only thing that matters is getting a look at its stupid bulbous nose

this is much easier than it sounds, as the weevil mysteriously dies upon contact with human hands but appears to come back to life when no longer handled. i'm still researching the hypothesis that i have the ability to revive corpses by placing them on the ground