This is an Eyed Click Beetle (Alaus oculatus), one of about one thousand species of Click Beetles in North America. These Click Beetles have something other beetles don’t have, a flexible connection between the first and second section of their thorax. This allows them to move their heads and first pair of legs independently from the rest of their body, and SNAP those two sections. This makes a loud click, and if they are on their backs, they’ll flip over. This is a great trick if being watched by a predator, more than likely startling or distracting the predator.
The Eyed Click Beetle is one of the larger Click Beetles. You can see in the top photo, with my hand for scale, that the beetle is nearly two inches long. Other species of Click Beetles are generally from one half inch, to one and a quarter inch. Most of them are brown to black, but some are leaning toward red or yellow, some with patterns. They generally have the same shape as this Eyed Click Beetle, long and narrow with a tapering toward the end.
