Testing published in 2020 loaded live beetles in a compression rig and recorded failure forces near 150 newtons, roughly 39,000 times the animal's body weight and far beyond what its likely predators can apply. Because the beetle is flightless, the elytra no longer function as wing covers and are instead fused along the midline.
The seam is the key. That midline suture is not straight but interlocks like jigsaw blades, and each blade has a laminated internal structure. Under load the layers delaminate progressively rather than the joint fracturing at once, absorbing energy and letting the beetle deform without catastrophic failure. Micro-computed tomography and finite element modelling both supported this reading.
The engineering interest is in joining dissimilar materials. Researchers built fastener designs modelled on the suture and found them tougher than a standard aeronautical fastener joining composite to metal, which is why the beetle appears in materials journals rather than only entomological ones.