By Karlene Brummer
Who can remember the Summers of past, when the hot days were serenaded by the sounds of Cicadas echoing around your backyard and the balmy nights meant your sceen door was adorned with dozens of small brown ‘Christmas’ beetles? If you were really lucky you might have had one or two colourful and shiny larger beetles making an appearance and hanging out with their drab cousins.
Where have they all gone? According to the Australian Museum, numbers have indeed fallen over the past 30-40 years. This is mainly due to the decline in their habitat – namely the Cumberland Plain woodland, of which only around 10% remains.
The Christmas Beetle larvae eat native grass roots, and the adult beetles eat eucalypt leaves, so as the woodland makes way for more and more housing, the beetle population has declined. I was very excited to see this little beauty over the Christmas break. It brought back many happy childhood memories.
Speaking of Cicadas, I thought I had seen most species and colours over the years, until I found this little guy recently, and it truly stumped me. It turns out that Australia has more than 300 species of Cicadas and after some diligent research, trawling through photo after photo, I think I have identified him as a Razor grinder, (Henicopsaltria eydouxii).
Apparently, the Razor grinder has one of the loudest calls, which has been likened to the sound of a metal grinder. It is one of the larger varieties of cicadas and has zig-zag markings on its front wings. Razor grinders occur all along the east coast from Gladstone Qld, to Narooma, NSW.
And finally in this trio of interesting insects, may I present to you the Fiddler Beetle. He was deep in a log when I was gardening, and the colour was just spectacular to see. Once again, I had no clue what it was (etymology is not my strong suit) so after some hit and miss search terms in Google, I finally found it: Eupoecila australasiae more commonly known as the Fiddler Beetle – So named because of the markings on its shell which supposedly look like a Fiddle or violin.
