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Anoplognathus
Christmas beetle is a name commonly applied to the Australian beetle genus Anoplognathus. They are known as Christmas beetles because they are abundant in both urban and rural areas close to Christmas. Christmas beetles are large (20-30 mm long) members of the scarab family that are noisy and clumsy fliers, similar to the cockchafers of Europe. They typically have elytra that are adark or light brown, or green, in some species with a green-yellow irridescence. The genus includes 35 species, several of which have been implicated in dieback of eucalypts. Anoplognathus pallidicollis is the species most commonly observed and associated with the name of Christmas beetle.
this beetle decided to join us for dinner! climbed up on the rum ball and then fell off before flying away!
Spotted on Dec 26, 2011
Submitted on Feb 9, 2012
10 Comments
The common 2 horn rhino is Xylotrupes gideon (subfamily=dynastina). I'm looking forward to see your pic.
thanks Martin !! I did take a photo of a rhino beetle that same night! havent had a chance to post it yet!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_b... ..... No it is a christmas beetle not a DUNG beetle.... surely the dung beetle would not be on the dinner table. They are actually quite pretty whereas the dung beetle is not so pretty! cheers Karen
There are five main types of scarab beetles (Family Scarabaeidae) 1/ Flower beetles(Cetoniinae) 2/ Rhino beetles (Dynastina) 3/ Dung beetles (Scarabaeinae) 4/ Chafer and scarab beetles (Melolonthinae) and 5/ Shining leaf beetles (Rutelinae ) including christmas beetles. This looks like a dung beetle only because it is sitting on a small cake as if trying to roll it.
Haha... Irungbam also felt like me.... what a co-incidence....
It looks like Dung roller Beetle.... Nice catch.
Please check...
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/590...
Isn't it a kind of Dung Beetle... I spotted one in Western Ghats...
Very elegant.
Maybe it thought it was a Christmas cake.
They are rather scarce in Victoria but this year we have seen a few.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/830...