You may have noticed by now that Christmas beetles are disappearing.
uncertain
beetles → notice → ?
The thing is, despite a decade of headlines asking where all the iridescent insects have gone, we still don’t know if they’re actually declining.
asserted
they → ask → headlines
You know?
asserted
You → know → ?
That’s because it takes years of grit, data and determination to convert anecdotal evidence into the hard, published, sciencey kind.
asserted
it → ’ → kind
Especially when it comes to insect research.
asserted
it → come → research
Associate Professor Tanya Latty has taken on the task of gathering this critical data.
asserted
Latty → take → data
Now, after years of running a citizen science project aimed at collecting beetle sightings, she’s at the precipice of being able to answer that yearly question: Where have all the Christmas beetles gone?
asserted
beetles → run → question
What’s really happening with these beautiful living baubles?
asserted
What → happen → baubles
The key citizen science project
“We’ve been doing the Christmas Beetle Count on an entirely unfunded basis for the last six years, and it’s been driven by community members going out, seeing a Christmas beetle and submitting that to iNaturalist
asserted
members → do → iNaturalist
,” Latty, an entomologist from the University of Sydney, says.
asserted
Latty → say → Sydney
“When we started, there were a few thousand sightings of Christmas beetles in Australia.
asserted
we → start → Australia
As of today, we’re up to 26,497 observations of 40 species, including nine species that hadn’t been seen for decades before the count started.
asserted
count → ’re → decades
“The problem is that it tells us where people are seeing a beetle.
asserted
people → tell → beetle
It doesn’t tell us where people are not seeing a beetle.
asserted
people → tell → beetle
So while the Christmas beetle count has built unprecedented data on where and when different types of beetles emerge each year, it can’t tell us for sure whether populations are declining.
asserted
populations → build → us
That’s why Latty is taking $30,000 awarded to the project by the Australian Geographic Society to fund a long-term national monitoring network of beetle catchers.
asserted
Latty → ’ → catchers
Latty and her colleagues are recruiting and training 50 members of the public to set up UV lights against white sheets in Sydney, Cairns, Canberra, Brisbane and Darwin.
asserted
Latty → recruit → Sydney
Once a month, the volunteers will run the light traps and record which beetles show up.
asserted
beetles → run → traps
That data could change the game.
uncertain
data → change → game
Having rigorous, long-term, location-based baseline population data may finally answer the question of what’s really going on with the Christmas beetles – and what we can do to bring them back.
uncertain
we → have → them
Applying for research funding is tricky without proof the beetles are vanishing.
asserted
beetles → apply → proof
“The problem with Christmas beetles has always been that technically, they’re not threatened.
asserted
they → threaten → beetles
There’s not really any data that their numbers have decreased, even though everybody feels like their numbers have decreased,” Latty says.
asserted
Latty → ’ → ?
“It’s a bit of a chicken-and-the-egg problem.
asserted
It → ’ → problem
You kind of need the funding to be able to demonstrate that there’s a decline, but you can’t demonstrate the decline until you have funding.”
asserted
you → need → funding
Christmas Beetle Count data has already helped identify at-risk species that are confined to small habitats.
asserted
that → help → habitats
One of those species is the gold Christmas beetle, which is so lustrous it looks as if an 18-carat scarab pendant popped off a pharaoh’s neck and sprang to life.
asserted
pendant → look → life
The public just crowned the gleaming insect as the ABC’s Insect of the Year.
asserted
public → crown → Year
It lives in a very small, specific range in Far North Queensland.
asserted
It → live → Queensland
“If there was a significant natural disaster, then that could conceivably wipe out all the habitat for that one species because it is found in such a small area,” Latty says.
uncertain
Latty → be → area
After a boom comeback year for the endangered bogongs, could we see a big year for beetles amid their seeming long-term decline?
uncertain
we → see → decline
It’s hard to say, given there are so many unknowns about both insects, Latty says.
asserted
Latty → ’ → insects
For a lot of insects, a warm, milder winter tends to mean they’re able to grow faster, get bigger and come out a little bit earlier, and we’ve seen that with the Christmas Beetle Count data.”
asserted
we → tend → data
The first sightings came through in September, she says, “a good month earlier than they did last year”.
asserted
they → come → September
Dr Chris Reid, senior research scientist and beetle expert at the Australian Museum, has already spotted three species near his home in the Illawarra, including the brown campfire beetle and the hairy spotted beetle, which has traded flamboyant colour for a fine fur coat.
asserted
which → spot → coat
He says he used to easily catch 50 beetles in a night under the train station lights near his home.
asserted
he → say → home
Now he’s lucky to bag five.
asserted
he → ’ → five
The story varies across species – some types of beetle are doing well in bushland – but many others are becoming rarer sights, he says, including the giant, shiny King beetles once common in cities such as Sydney, before clearing of bush and grassland on the urban fringe.
asserted
he → vary → fringe
“Sydney has just sprawled.
asserted
Sydney → sprawl → ?
The western suburbs cover what was ideal Christmas beetle habitat – grassland with some scattered trees, or Cumberland Plain Woodland.”
asserted
what → cover → trees
…and 11 more, not listed.
The Aporia
