Giant Click Beetle

                                                    Giant Click Beetle

Dr Abe V Rotor

Giant click beetle, Oxynopterus sp., is a click beetle from tropical Southeast Asia. The thorax-abdomen joint is equipped with a catapult lock.  When released it produces a clicking sound and the force it creates can bring back the insect from upside to normal position. Clicking is mainly used to avoid predation and to escape its enemies. 

When I was a child I played

Your game of click-click-click,

Telling me if life's bright or bleak.

I asked how many friends or money I had,

By clicking, I knew what you said;

Ans pressing your breast, my wish implied,

All I wanted, you complied. ~

*Oxynopterus mucronatus, sometimes known as the giant click beetle, is a species of click beetle from tropical Southeast Asia. Their larvae are specialized predators of termites. It was originally described by the French entomologist Guillaume-Antoine Olivier in 1792 as Elater mucronatus. There are about 9300 known species worldwide. The generic name Oxynopterus means "sharp-wing" in ancient Greek; while the specific name mucronatus is Latin for "pointed". Both refer to the sharp, pointed tips of the elytra.(Internet)