Widely recorded across Europe, with local variation in abundance and northern or southern range limits.
Fine-art photographic collection
Athous haemorrhoidalis
A beetle that escapes by firing a spring-loaded hinge in its chest.
About this species
Common Click Beetle
Athous haemorrhoidalis(Fabricius, 1801)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
When overturned or threatened, Athous haemorrhoidalis stores elastic energy in a thoracic latch and releases it as a violent click. Its soil-living wireworm larva has a very different life as both root-feeder and predator.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Elateridae · Athous
Accepted species or infraspecific taxon in the current GBIF/Catalogue of Life treatment; unsupported details have been omitted rather than inferred. · checked 2026-07-15
EuropeBroad documented range and selected occurrence localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Grassland, woodland edge and other vegetated habitats within the documented range.
Adults are seasonal.
Larvae are wireworms and may be predatory or feed on roots and decaying matter depending on species.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
The adult launches without using its legs, snapping a thoracic peg into a groove and forcing the whole body violently away from the ground.
Measurements on Athous click beetles found forces hundreds of times body weight during the explosive jump.
The wireworm stage can last at least two years and is not purely herbivorous: it also attacks other larvae, including winter moth caterpillars.