{"id":6727,"date":"2026-06-02T17:30:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=6727"},"modified":"2026-08-14T18:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:21:06","slug":"2026-06-tiny-armored-bulldozer-ruining-crops-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2026-06-tiny-armored-bulldozer-ruining-crops-en\/","title":{"rendered":"From subterranean wireworm to pollinator: The double life of the brown click beetle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meet the common brown click beetle (<em>Athous haemorrhoidalis<\/em>), a widespread European insect measuring a modest 10 to 15 millimeters in length. With its sleek, dark body and finely ribbed brown wings blanketed in microscopic gray hairs, this elegant beetle is a true master of transformation. It spends the first two years of its life hidden beneath the soil as a slender, tough-skinned larva. Known to farmers and gardeners as a &#8220;wireworm,&#8221; it spends this subterranean phase feeding on plant roots and tubers. Once it emerges into the summer sun as an adult, however, its destructive underground days are over. Transitioning into a beneficial pollinator, it takes to the air to patrol meadows and woodland edges, dining instead on pollen, sweet nectar, and the occasional small insect. I met this elegant beetle in the garden of a Swedish farmhouse in early summer of 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet the common brown click beetle (Athous haemorrhoidalis), a widespread European insect measuring a modest 10 to 15 millimeters in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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