The ominously named deathwatch beetle makes a tapping sound by repeatedly hammering its head against a wooden surface to attract a mate. One explanation says these insects earned their frisson-inducing moniker because their taps could be heard in old buildings on quiet spring nights, when people might be keeping watch near a family member’s sickbed. When occupants heard that tapping sound, they thought it was an omen the sick person might die.

Watching and listening to the bug in action is kind of spooky when you think about scenes like that.

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