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Diabolical Ironclad Beetle

uncommon

Diabolical Ironclad Beetle

Phloeodes diabolicus

Habitat
Oak woodland, chaparral, and dry forest under bark and on bracket fungi in western North America
Body length
25 mm
Order
Coleoptera · Zopheridae

Weird but real

Its fused wing-cases and jigsaw-like internal seams let it survive crushing forces many times stronger than most beetles can tolerate.

Why it's cool

A flightless desert-darkling beetle built like living armor, famous for an exoskeleton tough enough to inspire impact-resistant engineering.

Photographs

Diabolical Ironclad Beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus)
jen · CC0 · source
Phloeodes diabolicus adult variation taken by Shawn Hanrahan at the Texas A&M University Insect Collection in College Station, Texas.
No machine-readable author provided. Kugamazog~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 2.5 · source