ELATERIDAE

The Elateridae, sometimes called click beetles, are a cosmopolitan family of polyphagous beetles characterized by their unusual clicking mechanism; few families have members with the same mechanism, and all click beetles possess it: a spine on the prosternum can generate a clicking sound when it engages a notch in the mesosternum, producing a loud click that can launch the insect into the air. Clicking is used to avoid being hunted and is very useful when the insect is upside down and needs to right itself. There are approximately 7,000 known species.