bug id- beetle larva?

I'm sorry for the horrible picture, but it's what I could get.



That's a segmented exoskeleton, if you can't tell.  Kind of a flat head.  This one was maybe a centimeter and a half long.  I've seen a few of these this year, this one being the biggest.

They're very interesting in that when you tap in front of them or nudge their heads, they scurry backwards just as agilely as they do forwards, sometimes for quite a distance.  This one was in the bottom of a bowl of ground cherries I picked.

Any ideas what it is?

Hi, Jan

It looks like a Centipede to me.  Is it indoors or outdoors?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede

Suggest it may be the Ringlegged Earwig (Euborellia annulipes)

It's not a centipede as t only has six legs.

It's not an earwig as its exoskeleton is segmented and it has no pincers.

I've seen all of them outside.

I really wish I could have taken a better picture.

Earwig was my first thought but it didn't look like the pic I found ...

This does look similar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringlegged_earwig

If I remember correctly earwigs have a smell that other bugs don't have. They usually like damp places when indoors.

Again, no pincers so I'm quite sure isn't an earwig...unless there are some without pincers that I missed.

We have lots of European earwigs here. This was very very different.

It looks like some sort of beetle larva to me

I finally managed to get some good pictures of this thing. This is actually the first one I've seen this year. You can really see the speckle pattern on its body when it's in the sun. This time, when I accidently banged the bowl it was in, it flipped onto its back, like it was playing dead. I still don't know what they are, but they're very interesting to watch. The way they scurry backwards is hilarious.

i would guess a beetle larvae of some sort, too.