Giant African Click Beetle vs Giant Swamp Leaf Beetle

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Giant African Click Beetle Giant Swamp Leaf Beetle
Scientific Name Tetralobus flabellicornis Donacia provostii
Order Coleoptera Coleoptera
Family Elateridae Chrysomelidae
Size 40-60 mm 8-11 mm
Habitat Grasslands Wetlands
Diet Root Feeders Herbivores
Regions East Africa, Southern Africa Eastern North America
Conservation Least Concern Least Concern

Giant African Click Beetle

Africa's largest click beetle, with impressive fan-shaped antennae in males. It can launch itself into the air with an audible click when placed on its back.

💡

Did You Know?

It can catapult itself up to 30 cm into the air using a spring-loaded peg on its thorax.

Giant Swamp Leaf Beetle

One of the larger species of reed beetle, with a metallic golden-green to coppery body and distinctive long antennae. Adults rest on emergent aquatic plants in wetlands.

💡

Did You Know?

Like all Donaciinae, larvae breathe underwater by piercing plant roots and tapping into the air spaces (aerenchyma) inside the plant tissue.