Save our critters: People encouraged to join the great Christmas Beetle Count

University of Sydney Associate Professor Tanya Latty said the Christmas beetle's population decline is currently anecdotal as they don't have an accurate record of the beetles.

"You don't really notice something till it's gone sometimes and I think Christmas beetles were just so ubiquitous and so much a part of just the summer that we didn't really think that we needed to track them until we started looking around and not seeing any more," she said.

To understand the critters better, researchers are asking residents to join the Christmas Beetle Count by taking photos of Christmas beetles using the iNaturalist app.

The entomologist said they noticed earlier sightings of the beetle this year in October possibly due to the warm start to Spring, normally the beetle is seen around December and January.

There are about 36 different species of Christmas beetles almost all of which are found in Australia, while we're more likely to spot the brown iridescent coloured Christmas beetle, some in Queensland are a bright gold or apple green colour.

It turns out they're strikingly similar looking scarab beetles across the Illawarra that are often mistaken for Christmas beetles.

One common pest is an Argentinian scarab also known as an Argentinian lawn scarab that has been spotted in the hundreds this year.

Christmas beetles are in general quite large and they have a spike shape underneath their body.

To spot the difference between Christmas beetles and pests, Associate Professor Latty said you need to take a look at their legs.

"Something like an Argentinian scarab, they have quite scrawny, skinny back legs. Whereas a Christmas beetle, like I always joke is the beetle that never skips leg day, they've got beefy back legs," she said.

The iNaturalist app can also identify whether your photo is of a Christmas beetle or similar looking bug.

Understanding where the Christmas beetles are located is helpful for researchers to conserve the insects.

The iconic beetles are also an important food source for many young animals.

"If you've ever seen a Christmas beetle fly they're terribly clumsy, they're basically just flying free balls of protein and fat flying around for things to eat," Associate Professor Latty said.

In 2022 someone submitted the first live sighting of a species of Christmas beetle, with the only other sighting from decades ago and of a dead beetle.

Without enough information on Australian insects, Associate Professor Latty believes it's not just the Christmas beetle under threat.

"The thing that keeps me up at night is the Christmas beetles were big and obvious and conspicuous and so everybody noticed when they disappeared, but there are many, many other insects that are smaller or that aren't quite as well known that could be going extinct as we speak and we would not notice," she said.

Less than 20 per cent of Australian insects have been given a scientific name, with the other 80 per cent essentially unknown to science, she said.

"We can't do anything for an animal if we don't even know its name ... it's a big worry so I encourage everybody to just take pictures of whatever insects you see."

The iNaturalist app is a global biodiversity database where you can log sightings of any insects and plants

As an avid gardener herself, Associate Professor Latty empathises with people fed up with pests but encourages gardeners to ditch insecticides that kill both the pests and native insects.

The Christmas Beetle Count is a collaborative project between Invertebrates Australia and the University of Sydney.