#malacogaster

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