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Christmas beetle, aka Golden stag beetle

Lamprima aurata

Description:

The Golden stag beetle (named for the color of the male and his large antennae) is most frequently called the Christmas beetle here in Australia, because it hatches out around Christmas time and because it is brightly colored like a Christmas decoration.

Habitat:

In this instance, dry sclerophyll bushland, but found in much of Australia.

Notes:

This ia a female, and the first I've seen of this bronze-ish color. Most females have a base color of green with orange iridescence and electric blue legs: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/323... Males are gold, with much larger antennae and mandibles: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/326...

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14 Comments

MayraSpringmann
MayraSpringmann 11 years ago

Wonderful color!

lori.tas
lori.tas 12 years ago

Thanks Latimeria, I just posted another one of these females: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/830... I'm still waiting on the males to show up.

Latimeria
Latimeria 12 years ago

Sheesh lori, always wowing us with your Tasmanian beetles. ;)

lori.tas
lori.tas 12 years ago

'Tis the season, Emma. ;)

Hema  Shah
Hema Shah 12 years ago

thanks for sharing!

LarryGraziano
LarryGraziano 12 years ago

could you check this out for me lori.....http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/8102467

lori.tas
lori.tas 12 years ago

Oops, comments doing weird things to me.

lori.tas
lori.tas 12 years ago

Atul, it was a combination of natural light (I held her by the window) and a ring flash. I still never think the photos capture their color because so much is caused by iridescent shifts that can't all be captured in one 1/125 second instant.

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 12 years ago

Exactly right lori - these types of colours really need a short movie.

Atul
Atul 12 years ago

none the less Lori its a beautifully captured pic !!!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 12 years ago

Fabulous colour.
I'll keep an eye open for ours now although it's been pretty cool here so far which might slow them down. Seen a few promising ground holes though.
Watching for your male addition then.

Atul
Atul 12 years ago

lovely !!
have you used a flash on this one Lori!!
beautiful colors on that one!!

lori.tas
lori.tas 12 years ago

And to you Argy. We've been keeping an eye out for these, and she was our first spotting of the season. Male seem to show up a about week later.

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 12 years ago

Merry Christmas to you too lori !!

lori.tas
Spotted by
lori.tas

Tasmania, Australia

Spotted on Dec 19, 2011
Submitted on Dec 19, 2011

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