[PHOTOS TAKEN: MAY 9TH, 2026 | Image IDs: Four photos of a grey small eyed click beetle perched on the side of a stripped log /End IDs.]

if you're passingly familiar with beetles but don't necessarily know all the more obscure taxa, this Malacogaster might appear like a confusing amalgamation of a few different families, but it actually belongs to one you'd never expect it to - this is in fact a particularly weird looking click beetle, with all of its relatives' diagnostic features practically gone

this is a larva, but adult females are larviform and don't look too different, which is how i know the other one is a male. they're also like, three times the males' size

The First Book of Bugs. Written and illustrated by Margaret Williamson. 1949.

Cute crimson clickers

an Elaterid (click beetle) on Stemonitis splendens (chocolate tube slime mold)