Not too long ago I came home from work, and during the course of doing my afternoon chores, I found a cool looking insect crawling around on my living room floor. At least this time it wasn’t in my bathroom! It was a long, thin beetle with a metallic sheen, and long antennas and legs. I had seen these guys around outside, but I’d never had one in the house before, and I really didn’t know what kind of beetle it was. Of course, I decided to get some photos of it before taking it back outside. I took a few with my regular lens and except for a little bit of crawling around, it was a pretty willing subject. Then I decided to go get my macro lens to get some closeup shots.

I guess my showing interest in it also made it interesting to my cats (it had probably been in the house all afternoon, and the lazy creatures hadn’t paid it any mind). I didn’t realize that they had seen it or I never would have walked away, but when I came back, one of them was batting it around. The poor little beetle was all curled up and it looked dead. I was annoyed with the cat and with myself, but I decided to go ahead and get some macro shots of the head and the long segmented antennas. While I was doing that the beetle started to twitch it’s legs. It started with the front two and slowly the others started to move too. Before long, it had rolled itself over and was crawling across the floor again. My diagnosis of death by misadventure with a cat had apparently been premature!

I figured I had better get the little beetle back outside and away from the cats before they really did kill it, so I scooped it up on a piece of paper. As soon as I did that, it curled up and played dead again. This time I wasn’t fooled. I took it out to the porch, and since I still had the macro lens on the camera, I decided to get some images in the natural light, too. I slid it off the paper onto the wood since I knew the wood would make a much better background (but it did make the beetle a little sandy). Then I sat and waited. And slowly but surely the little legs began to twitch. Just like before it started with the front two and slowly progressed until they were all moving together and the little beetle turned itself over and started to crawl again. I took pictures of it until it crawled into the crack between two boards on the porch and disappeared.

From my photos I was able to identify the beetle as a long jointed beetle, which is a type of beetle that eats dead wood, leaves, and decaying vegetation. They are capable of flight and can be attracted to light. I suspect it flew into the house the night before when I was in and out taking care of the dogs (but my super alert cats didn’t notice it until I did!). I couldn’t find much information about it’s behavior beyond what it eats and it’s reproductive cycle, so I have to assume that the playing dead is a defense mechanism. Do any of you know anything about these beetles? If you do, I’d love to know if you’ve seen this behavior!