Become a citizen scientist and help find our Christmas beetles

Do you remember seeing loads of Christmas beetles over the holidays? Does it feel like they’re not around any more? When was the last time you came across one?

Invertebrates Australia and entomologist, Associate Professor Tanya Latty from the School of Life and Environmental Science, are keen to hear your answers. In 2022, Invertebrates Australia and the University of Sydney ran the Christmas Beetle Count project.

Volunteers, dubbed ‘citizen scientists’, were asked to take pictures of any Christmas beetles they encountered and upload them onto iNaturalist. The goal was to understand the current beetle distribution, understand if the beetle populations were in decline, and identify and combat potential causes to secure the beetles’ future.

The project was a huge success with 6592 Christmas beetle sightings collected by volunteers. 34 Christmas beetle species were observed, including four 'missing' beetle species:

• Anoplognathus multiseriatus - last reported in 1970s
• Anoplognathus rhinastus - last reported in 1999
• Anoplognathus nebulosus - last reported in 1999
• Anoplognathus vietor - previously reported from a single male specimen in 1986.

There is only one preserved specimen of Anoplognathus vietor, so it is especially exciting to have recorded a live beetle.

As December approaches, Associate Professor Latty is once again calling for community members to volunteer to help spot these gorgeous beetles.

“Australia is a huge, huge country. So, without having eyes everywhere, we can't really identify the problem areas,” she says.

“We desperately need people in communities everywhere in Australia, even places where perhaps they haven't seen Christmas beetles, to keep an eye out for them.”

While a lot of interest was generated last year, Associate Professor Latty hopes that even more people will get involved this time around to help people understand the key role that insects play in our world. Plus, they’re a great way to get over any bug fear you might have.

“I think that fear is something that tends to get put into us very young and it's hard to shift,” Associate Professor Latty says.

“But they do all the jobs, they’re predators, waste managers and soil regenerators. And if we ignore them because we're scared of them, we're going to lose something fundamentally important to our ecosystems.

“And Christmas beetles... they’re beautiful! They're cute, they're harmless, they're big. What's not to love?”

If you want to get involved as a citizen scientist and help record these beautiful beetles, you can submit a volunteering expression of interest form here.