While some people start the holiday season with Mariah Carey's music, many Australians know Christmas is coming in another way.
The arrival of the clumsy Christmas beetle, a brightly colored insect that crawls under sheets, slams into windows, and swarms around streetlights during the summer.
Dr Tanya L-A T U, an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, tells the BBC, "We have in Australia this unique... biological event where Christmas is associated with the arrival of these beautiful, glittery, friendly beetles".
The harmless beetles, which do not sting or bite, used to be very common. In 1932, they were so productive, Queen slanders could be paid one pound to get 200.
Scientists now yearn to see as many as possible in one location. The platypus and koala, for example, are unique to Australia, but the majority of beetle species have vanished from the country.
Because the insects' larvae consume native grassroots and feed on eucalyptus trees, scientists believe habitat destruction is to blame.
Through Dr L-A T Y "Christmas beetle count project", however, the researchers hope to obtain more precise responses.
"A lot of people seem to remember that these beetles used to be in huge numbers, like 10, 20, or something like that. However, that does not appear to be the case any longer", states Dr L-A T Y.
To figure out how many Christmas beetles there are and what might be causing their apparent decline, the project asks Australians to upload photos of any Christmas beetles they see this holiday season to an app.
According to Dr L-A T Y, "we can't even begin to address the conservation issues here without numbers".
According to Dr L-A T Y, public input, also known as "citizen science", provides more information than would otherwise be available.
Frequently we don't have the assets to do the sorts of huge scope studies... so this permits us to get heaps of individuals out there gathering information from ideally wherever in the country, she says
The beetles, which are members of the scarab family and belong to the genus A N O P L O N G-A T H U S, are an important part of the ecosystem because the larvae help to aerate the soil and provide other animals like lizards and birds with important food.
Christmas beetles, according to Dr L-A T Y, could be the "canary in the coal mine" for the decline of other species.
She says, "It really worries me that there are many other species that may be undergoing similar declines, but they're not as big and people haven't noticed". Because Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world, people there have been asked to pay close attention to their native species in recent years.
Scientists urged the public to enter fire-affected areas when it was safe to do so and upload images to the same app that was used for the Christmas beetle project after the bushfires in Australia in 2020.
In addition, the Australian Museum launched the Frog I-D app, which encourages the public to submit recordings of frog calls from across the country as populations decline. Over 500,000 frog calls have been submitted thus far.
Furthermore, for those shifting back and forth about whether to reach out, Dr L- T Y has a straightforward message.
This is sort of everyone's chance to help preserve biodiversity. We rarely get the chance to get involved in projects of this magnitude related to conservation.
Why wouldn't you do it if it will only take you a minute to upload that picture, but could potentially have a huge conservation benefit?
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