Christmas beetles are an iconic feature of the Australian summer and many Australians have fond memories of finding these big beautiful beetles in large numbers. In the last ten years or so there have been many anecdotal accounts of people seeing fewer Christmas beetles and media articles asking, “Where are all the Christmas Beetles?” We want to know the answer to this question too! That’s why we decided to team up with the University of Sydney and Dr Chris Reid from the Australian Museum as a Scientific Advisor and set up this project.

Now in it’s third year, we have already gathered some really valuable data - but we still need more!

We have started a Community Science Project to gather observations of Christmas Beetles. Our project aims to:

1. Understand the current distribution of Christmas Beetles through observations

2. Compare the current distribution to historic records to determine if there is a decline

3. If there is evidence of decline, identify its potential causes

Let’s figure it out together, add your photos to our iNaturalist Project!

Gathering data on the whereabouts of Christmas Beetles is the first and most critical part of our study. We need as many people as possible to tell us when they spot a Christmas Beetle! Or any beetle in fact! Even if you aren’t sure what you’re seeing, please upload it - all data is valuable to citizen science. Contribute your photos to our iNaturalist Christmas Beetles Project … and beware of imposters! Download the iNaturalist App from the App Store or Google Play or use the desktop version to add photos from your camera.

Identifying Christmas Beetles

Not sure about identifying your beetle? Don’t worry! When you upload photos of your sighting to our iNaturalist Project the iNaturalist community will chime in and figure it out, that’s one of the reasons it’s a cool platform. Even if it turns out not to be a Christmas Beetle, we encourage you to uploading your finding anyway, you never know how it might be useful in the future!

If you’d like to try and identify your beetle, the Australian Museum’s ‘Xmas Beetle ID Guide’ App is the best resource, and it’s free. Download it from the App Store or Google Play. There is about 35 species of Christmas Beetles across Australia, but it is easy to identify them with the right photos!

The best way is to take four photos:

1. One of the back

2. One of the belly

3. One from the front, of the face, and

4. One from the back, of their little rear end!

See below for the 'washerwoman' images from the Australian Museum's 'Xmas Beetle ID Guide' App. But again, even if you can only get one photo, that is better than nothing!

Get technical

If you know your beetle anatomy, or are keen to learn, there is an online ‘Lucid Key’ written by Australian Museum for the NSW species! Check it out: Key to the Christmas Beetles of NSW