bugs page!! its a page of bugs!!

here is where i plan to post pictures of bugs I've personally seen. expect them to sometimes be blurry, and sometimes be cradled in my dirty hands (i work with the dirt, so i rarely have clean hands when a bug arises)

One of my favourite beetles to see around Christmas, the family is just known as Christmas beetles (Anoplognathus sp.) and there are about 34 different species. They look like tiny flying baubles, and come in reds, greens and golds.

This species is the duckbilled beetle (Anoplognathus montanus, and one of the only Christmas beetles I saw this year (summer 2025/6). Unfortnately, they are thought to be in decline due to pesticide use, especially offtarget spraying to kill African Lawn Beetle grubs that doesn't discriminate between beetle grub species at all. My local Invertebrate society implemented the Christmas Beetle Count with iNaturalist this summer in hopes of getting an accurate read of what species are where, and how many.

Remember that pesticide use does more damage than good! In a lot of cases, if left alone, predatory insects and animals will come to assist you in balancing out the number of pest species. Nature has balance that we still struggle to see the big-picture of!

This moth is very special to me! My partner (who was very afraid of moths at the time, although has since come to like them!) pinned me a dead one he found in a Subway bathroom and framed it with a page from a Sappho collection of poetry with this fragment:

Someone will remember us, I say, even in another time.

This framed moth remains one of my most treasured items. As a species, Dasypodia selenophora is quite a common moth where I live, and goes by many cute names such as the Granny's Cloak moth and the Southern Old Lady moth.

They eat a variety of wattle (acacia sp.), and are often found resting in homes, garages and sheds.