Click Beetle
Click Beetle
Invertebrate
A common garden beetle that flips itself upright with a loud snap and jump instead of using its legs.
💡 Fun Facts
- If it lands upside down, it does not use its legs — it snaps a hinge in its body with a loud 'click' and flips itself into the air to land the right way up.
- That snap flings its whole body upward about 25 times its own length, roughly several centimetres.
- It is common in British gardens, hedgerows and grasslands, and its young — called wireworms — live hidden in the soil.
Name Story
Athous haemorrhoidalis
means “the blood-red-tipped (click beetle)”
likely meaningThe epithet haemorrhoidalis is settled: it describes the reddish colouring of the hind body, not a literal bleeding. The genus name Athous has no reliably documented meaning, so present only the epithet's meaning as fact.
What does its name mean?
- Athous — meaning obscure; possibly from a Greek place/root, not reliably recordedGreek (uncertain)
- haemorrhoidalis — bleeding / blood-flowing — refers to the reddish rear of the bodyGreek haimorrhois 'flowing with blood' (haima 'blood' + rhein 'to flow')
The second name sounds alarming — 'blood-flowing' — but it simply points to the rusty-red colour of the beetle's back end, not to any real blood. The first name's meaning has been lost, so only the reddish 'blood' part can be read for certain.