(Supplied: Alan Henderson, Minibeast Wildlife)
The gold Christmas beetle is the newly crowned 2026 ABC Australian Insect of the Year.
A grand total of 44,472 people voted for the third ABC Australian Insect of the Year, with 17,454 nominating the gold Christmas beetle (Anoplognathus aureus) among a field of six finalists.
(Supplied: Peter Rowland, PRPW)
A formidable mosquito hunter with tiger-striped wings was named Australia's top insect for 2025.
The graphic flutterer dragonfly (Rhyothemis graphiptera) captured more than a quarter of all votes in an October online poll to snare the title of 2025 ABC Australian Insect of the Year.
(Supplied: Kit Prendergast, The Bee Babette)
In 2024 a cute, vividly coloured native bee with a very distinctive buzz, the Blue-banded Bee was the ABC's first Australian Insect of the Year.
There are 35 known species of Christmas beetle, says a curator, Dr Chris Reid, at Australian Museum in Sydney and they are all native to Australia.
Species include the King Beetle (Anoplognathus viridiaeneus), which used to be common in the Sydney area but is now rarely seen.
Christmas beetles are famous for their iridescent sheen, but scientists are not sure what function this serves. However the really shiny examples, such as the Gold Christmas Beetle (Anoplognathus aureus) are found in the tropical rainforests of northern Australia.
Co-founders of the charity Invertebrates Australia, Dr Tanya Latty and Dr Kate Umbers are asking Australians to get involved in a project called the Christmas Beetle Count, to take photos of beetles they see and upload them to the iNaturalist website for confirmation identification. This information can then be used to start mapping numbers. The Australian museum has an app called the Xmas Beetle ID Guide to help citizen scientists check their sightings.
While scientists are short on data, anecdotally many people remember seeing large numbers of Christmas beetles around Christmas time in the past, and this no longer seems to happen. If you find a Christmas beetle this website will help you identify it.
I remember collecting Christmas beetles as a child with my siblings. We would count how many we found that day, race them on our hands and then release them, so we probably counted the same ones several times.
This fabulous book published by the CSIRO takes young readers on a lyrical discovery of these fascinating creatures and explores the possible reasons for their decrease in numbers.
Another Australian picture book that features a Christmas beetle is Laura Bunting's Coco and the Christmas Beetle. It gives a much more playful view of them.
I think the announcement was made this week in readiness for next week when it is Bugs in My Backyard Week.
