Christmas beetles can still be found in Brisbane gardens. But can you tell them apart?

“What we think of as Christmas beetles here in mainland Australia, particularly on the east coast, are a group of scarab beetles in the subfamily Rutelinae,” she says.

There are over 35 species of these mainland Christmas beetles, all of which are Australian natives and feed primarily on gum tree leaves as adults.

“In south-east Queensland there are about 10 or so species depending on exactly where you are [and] there’s about three to five relatively common ones,” said Gunter.

“The one that is most common in Brisbane is Anoplognathus porosus. I believe the common name of that is the washer woman.”

Other common species included the campfire beetle (Anoplognathus concolor), the cashew beetle (Anoplognathus pallidicollus), and Anoplognathus boisduvalii – a striped variant.

Adult Christmas beetles live in dry bushland and rainforest, emerging from pupation in the wet summer months, around Christmas. For the rest of the year, the beetles live underground as grubs, feeding on decaying plant matter and nibbling roots.

Location dictates colour variation, with many brighter Christmas beetle species calling North Queensland’s wet tropics home, although pattern, size and colour vary beetle to beetle.

With beetles being the most abundant type of animal in the world – making up 20 per cent of all species – Gunter said the legs and claws were the best measure to tell Christmas beetles apart.

“If you look at [Christmas beetles’] legs, they’re often wider than those cane types [and] you’ll see that instead of the claws being nice and close together they’re asymmetrical,” she said.

“I would recommend if someone wants to identify a beetle, take a picture from the top, flip it over, take one from the bottom, take a good photo of its face, one in its head … [and a] posterior photo.”

Finding a definitive answer as to what species you’re looking at is difficult, Gunter added, “unless you’re a beetle specialist”.