It arrives for Christmas
The adults come out of the ground in early summer, which in Australia means December.
The backyard · Beetles
Christmas beetle
Anoplognathus
A plump, shiny beetle the colour of polished brass, with spiky legs.
- Size
- About 2 to 3cm long
- Look for it
- November to December, then January to January
- Where
- Eucalyptus woodland, parks and gardens in eastern Australia
Bumbles after you, and flies with a clatter. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Christmas beetle
Good to know
Six things about the christmas beetle
Shiny as a bauble
Its wing cases shine gold, bronze or green, like a decoration.
Drawn to the lights
It flies clumsily at night and crashes into lit windows and porch lights.
A gum leaf eater
Adults chew eucalyptus leaves, leaving a jagged, zigzag edge.
A year in the soil
The fat white grub curls in a C shape and feeds on grass roots for a year or more.
Where have they gone?
People who remember them in thousands now see only a few. Scientists are asking the public to report sightings.
The real thing
Photos of the christmas beetle
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Check under an outside light on a warm, humid evening in December. By day they cling to gum leaves at the tips of branches.
How to help
The Christmas Beetle Count, run by an Australian charity, asks people to photograph any they find. Lost grassland near towns is the likely reason for the decline.
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