Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

[tllwd]

I haven't seen a Christmas Beetle since I was a kid. I'm SO glad at least some are still around. What's a false one?

False Christmas beetles look like proper Christmas Beetles but smaller and their colours are not iridescent.
We have most of insects and wild life disappeared here after extreme bush fires in 2019-2020 but now they are gradually coming back.

[Black Orchid]

I haven't seen a Christmas Beetle since I was a kid. I'm SO glad at least some are still around. What's a false one?

False Christmas beetles look like proper Christmas Beetles but smaller and their colours are not iridescent.
We have most of insects and wild life disappeared here after extreme bush fires in 2019-2020 but now they are gradually coming back.

Every morning and evening flocks of Cockatoos flew over me squawking until the 2019 fires. Then nothing!

Some are coming back but much fewer now and I only see/hear them in the distance occasionally. Not daily.

[Jasin]

Wow. I just clicked on this page and above me around the backyard porch light is my first Christmas beetle.
How about that.

[tllwd]

Too much coincidence, we've been bugged