November 12, 2026 — 7:50pm
For many who grew up in Brisbane, Christmas beetles are synonymous with the start of the festive season.
Locals remember the shiny, iridescent insects emerging en masse each year to crawl across lawns, congregate around lights and smash into glass doors.
This spring, large beetles spotted across Brisbane’s suburbs have attracted attention and raised hopes the Christmas beetle has returned in greater numbers after decades of apparent decline.
Some, however, are likely imposters.
Early November rains this year brought forth large numbers of the native brown cockchafer beetle in south-east Queensland.
Queensland Museum entomologist Dr Nicole Gunter said this was a species easily mistaken for the Christmas beetle.
“They are in the same family of beetles, but different subfamilies,” she said.
Christmas beetles were also frequently mistaken for the Argentine lawn beetle.
The imposters are dull brown. In contrast, the real thing is shiny, often an iridescent green or metallic brown in keeping with the season, and twice as large.
In welcome news, however, Gunter said south-east Queensland’s wet start to November also made conditions ripe for legitimate varieties of Christmas beetles to emerge.
There are more than 35 species of mainland Christmas beetles, with about 10 of those found in and around Brisbane.
“We’re definitely seeing them at the moment,” Gunter said.
“It is the perfect time of the year to be seeing them. We have had good rain last year, and we’ve also had a reasonably wet spring so far.”
One of the easiest ways to distinguish a real Christmas beetle from the fake kind is to look at the insect’s legs.
“A Christmas beetle’s legs are really robust and strong, and they’ve got these really big claws that are used for gripping,” Gunter says.
“Often the main part of their legs will be either a sort of yellowish brown, or a reddish brown.
“Generally, the last sections of their legs are a darker colour – they’re either a really darkish red, or black. Those legs are quite characteristic.”
Their heads are also highly distinctive. They have a shovel-like extension called a clypeus, which gives them a duck-bill appearance.
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.
“The good news is, these are seasonal insects,” Gunter said.
“So if we have a few good years of rain, and there are areas of habitat that are still suitable for them, it does mean that these populations have the opportunity to bounce back.”
Backyard enthusiasts without a science degree can use the Australian Museum’s Christmas beetle ID app – and contribute to a citizen science project that tracks Christmas beetle populations as they fluctuate from year to year.
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Source: The Sydney Morning Herald · Marissa Calligeros
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