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 a dark or light brown, or green, in some species with a green-yellow iridescence.
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.
Species include:
- Anoplognathus abnormis
- Anoplognathus aeneus
- Anoplognathus aureus
- Anoplognathus blackdownensis
- Anoplognathus boisduvalii
- Anoplognathus brevicollis
- Anoplognathus brunnipennis
- Anoplognathus chloropyrus
- Anoplognathus concolor
- Anoplognathus daemeli
- Anoplognathus flindersensis
- Anoplognathus hirsutus
- Anoplognathus macalpinei
- Anoplognathus macleayi
- Anoplognathus montanus
- Anoplognathus multiseriatus
- Anoplognathus narmarus
- Anoplognathus nebulosus
- Anoplognathus olivieri
- Anoplognathus pallidicollis
- Anoplognathus parvulus
- Anoplognathus pindarus
- Anoplognathus porosus
- Anoplognathus prasinus
- Anoplognathus punctulatus
- Anoplognathus rhinastus
- Anoplognathus rothschildti
- Anoplognathus rubiginosus
- Anoplognathus rugosus
- Anoplognathus smaragdinus
- Anoplognathus suturalis
- Anoplognathus velutinus
- Anoplognathus viridiaeneus
- Anoplognathus viriditarsis
Famous quotes containing the words christmas and/or beetle:
“Monday’s child is fair in face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for its living;
And a child that is born on a Christmas day,
Is fair and wise, good and gay.”
—Anonymous. Quoted in Traditions, Legends, Superstitions, and Sketches of Devonshire, vol. 2, ed. Anna E.K.S. Bray (1838)
“The sense of death is most in apprehension,
And the poor beetle that we tread upon
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)