When Sarah Lamagna set out for a hike with her 5-year-old son at Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts, she expected the usual: sand, scenery, and their favorite trail game — tracking animals.
“We've done over 350 hikes together,” Lamagna told The Dodo. “To keep him moving, we go ‘creature spying,’ where we look for animals or evidence of them on the trail.”
After so many outings, the pair had become pretty skilled at identifying tracks. But that day, they came across a set of prints unlike anything they’d seen before.
“I'm a former wildlife ecologist, so it really took me by surprise that I couldn't figure out the tracks,” Lamagna said. “We thought maybe a lizard, since it had a tail mark, but the footprints didn’t feel right.”
Her son, meanwhile, had a more dramatic guess:
“‘It’s got to be a baby alligator,’” he told her — which led to a quick reminder that alligators don’t roam wild in New England.
Curious, the two followed the mystery tracks for nearly a mile, hoping to catch a glimpse of the animal that made them. When they finally did, the answer was far smaller — and stranger — than they imagined.
At the end of the trail was a beetle, strolling casually along the sand.
“After some research when we got home, we figured out that it was most likely a short-winged blister beetle, also known as an oil beetle,” Lamagna explained.
The harmless-looking insect has a surprising defense: when disturbed, it secretes a yellow, oily substance that can blister skin. Luckily, Sarah and her son always practice “Leave No Trace,” meaning they never touch or bother wildlife.
Mystery solved, the duo carried on, laughing at the discovery and already eager for the next puzzling set of tracks.
You can follow the duo's hiking adventures on TikTok.
