Beetles are the most diverse group of animals on Earth, accounting for nearly a quarter of all known animal species. Australia is thought to be home to a whooping 30,000 beetle species, and they are crucial to keeping our ecosystems healthy.

Beetles can be distinguished from other insects by their hard, shell-like wing covers called “elytra”. Unlike other insects, beetles hide their soft, thin wings beneath these protective covers when they are not in use.

Summer is a great time to go beetle-watching in Australia. While beetles can be found all year round, many species are more visible and numerous when the weather heats up.

Beetles come in a brilliant range of colours, patterns and textures – even metallic – which makes them especially fun to spot. Here are five beautiful beetles to look out for this summer.

1. Flower chafers

Although bees get all the glory, beetles are the unsung pollinators of many native plants.

Flower chafers (from the subfamily Cetoniinae) are named after their habit of visiting flowers to feed on nectar and pollen. This makes them important pollinators.

Flower chafer larvae live in rotting wood or leaf litter. There are 146 species in Australia, found in all states and territories..

One of the most common is the fiddler beetle (Eupoecila australasiae), found along Australia’s east coast. It features striking black, green and occasionally yellow markings in a fiddle-shaped pattern.

Female fiddler beetles lay eggs in soil or rotting logs. The larvae burrow through the soil to feed, emerging as adults in the spring.

The fiddler beetle feeds on native flowers such as Angophora, Melaleuca and Leptospermum (tea trees) and may occasionally eat rotting fruit.

Beetle-pollinated flowers are often white or cream, with nectar placed where beetles can readily reach it. The below video shows a native tree on which multiple species are feeding at once.

2. Stag beetles

The larvae of stag beetles (from the family Lucanidae) feed on decaying wood – breaking down tough, fibrous material and returning essential nutrients to the soil.

Adult stag beetles have been described as “beautiful baubles” for their shimmery exoskeletons in shades of gold, green, purple and blue.

Stag beetles are most abundant in Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria, but are also found in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

3. Christmas beetles

In southern and eastern Australia, the festive season is traditionally marked by the arrival of large numbers of iridescent Christmas beetles (Anoplognathus).

Of the 36 species of Christmas beetle, all but one are found exclusively in Australia, making them a truly iconic part of the country’s natural heritage.

Although Christmas beetles were once reliable heralds of summer, their numbers now appear to be declining. A lack of long-term population monitoring makes it challenging to confirm this trend, however.

4. Jewel beetles

Jewel beetles (from the family Buprestidae) feature brilliantly coloured, metallic bodies – features thought to deter predators.

Australia is lucky to have 1,200 species of these beautiful living jewels, found all across the continent.

Adult jewel beetles feed on nectar and pollen, while their larvae usually bore through the wood of trees or the roots of plants.

5. Diamond weevils

The diamond weevil (Chrysolopus spectabilis) is the crown jewel of Australia’s weevil family. It comes in a startling array of colours, from blue to yellow and green.

Diamond weevils are found commonly along the east coast of Australia, eating plant material such as Acacia leaves.

The species is one of Australia’s first insects named by European scientists. It was first collected in 1770 by naturalist Joseph Banks, who landed at Botany Bay with Captain Cook.

Saving our beetles

Despite their ecological importance and phenomenal diversity, beetles are understudied. Scientists are constantly finding new species, such as the adorable fluffy longhorn beetle (Excastra albopilosa) recently discovered in the Gold Coast hinterland.

Unfortunately beetles – like many other insect species – face increasing threats from habitat loss, climate change and the misuse of insecticide.

A few simple actions can help native beetles to thrive.

Planting nectar-rich natives helps provide a reliable food source for flower-feeding beetles. Choose native plants with large, bowl-shaped or flattened flowers which makes the nectar easy for insects to reach. Good examples include the dwarf apple (Angophora hispida), white kunzea (Kunzea ambigua) and rice flower (Ozothamnus diosmifolius).

As a bonus, flowers also attract pest-eating beetles such as ladybirds.

Many beetles rely on decaying leaves and wood for food and shelter. So try to avoid disturbing or removing rotting wood and leaf litter from natural habitats.

Avoid using insecticides in home gardens. Many insecticides commonly used to target pest beetles, such as the invasive Argentinian scarab, indiscriminately kill beneficial ground-dwelling beetle larvae.

And help scientists better understand beetle populations and their conservation needs by uploading beetle sightings to online platforms such as iNaturalist and Canberra Nature Mapr.

Public sightings can have a big impact. Participants in the annual Christmas Beetle Count have rediscovered seven species not seen for decades.

By protecting our valuable – and stunning – Australian beetles, we can ensure they survive for future generations to enjoy.

Tanya Latty, Associate Professor, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney and James Bickerstaff, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australia National Insect Collection, CSIRO

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

While we’re busy preparing for Christmas, many Australian native plants and animals are also busy – growing, flowering and raising their young. What better time to celebrate this explosion of life?

Let’s set aside the holly, snowmen and reindeer this Christmas and decorate our homes with some of Australia’s most remarkable species instead.

Drawing on themes from our research on wildlife, ecology and astronomy, we’ve prepared this handy guide to an Aussie festive season.

It’s not too late to get crafty and deck the halls with Christmas beetle baubles and paper parrots for a Christmas with a difference.

Christmas beetle baubles

As their name suggests, Christmas beetles would have to be our most notable Christmassy insect. These little beauties give our eucalyptus trees their own little baubles. The trees provide food for the beetles, which become most abundant at this time of year.

Use our Christmas beetle stencils and some spray paint to give your baubles a fresh new look.

Have you heard about the Christmas Beetle Count? This project is tracking Christmas beetle populations across Australia through the power of citizen science. People have recorded nearly 15,000 observations of beetles, including some not seen in decades.

By gaining more knowledge of which species of beetles are around, we can learn how they are doing in the face of a changing climate and urbanisation. It can also help us understand what needs to be preserved in order for Christmas beetles to thrive in future ecosystems.

Put some spines among pines (or gum leaves)

The echidna is one of only two egg-laying mammals in Australia. The other is the egg-laying and venomous playtpus.

Fun fact: relative to body size, the short-beaked echidna is the mammal with the world’s largest prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain is crucial for decision-making. Perhaps these humble, bumbling balls of spikes make better choices than we humans do?

Clay models of this marvellous monotreme make wonderful additions to any table or tree. Make your own with some clay for the body, some sticks for the spines and a couple of small gumnuts for eyes.

Swap the reindeer for tree kangaroos

For a local substitution for flying reindeer, why not consider kangaroos in the treetops?

In the far north, two species of tree kangaroos bound and crash through the treetops of our tropical rainforests.

The powerful Lumholtz and Bennett’s tree kangaroos are built for climbing. They can also jump up to 15 metres from the treetops to the ground, unharmed.

Create your own by cutting little kangaroo-shaped silhouettes out of cardboard, and draw on a face and put it on your Christmas tree.

A female tree kangaroo is best, because then you can tuck special treats like chocolates into their pouch. It’s the ultimate wildlife advent calendar.

Just don’t despair if these guys leap off the tree, as this is quite normal behaviour.

Elegant Yuletide Eclectus parrots

Better than matching knitted jumpers, Eclectus parrots make the ultimate Christmas couples. These parrots from Cape York come in vivid green (male) and stunning two-tone blue and red (female).

Males seek to impress females with their plumage and vocal repertoire. If successful, they’ll engage in acrobatic aerial displays by showing off their colourful feathers, prior to mating. Several males will bring food to a single female while she incubates eggs in a deep tree hollow.

Make your own origami bird decorations using coloured paper. Once the bird is folded, add some ribbon so they can be placed on your tree. Consider creating a whole family of adults and chicks, just as they would in the wild.

You can even use recycled paper and colour it to suit other Christmas-coloured birds such as king parrots, rosellas or lorikeets.

If you’re into backyard or street cricket, you could even take advantage of time spent waiting around when you’re fielding to do a bird count using the citizen science app eBird. Download the app, count the birds you see and contribute to citizen science.

Look up to the sky for inspiration

The “Great Celestial Emu” is a beautiful feature of the night sky in the southern hemisphere.

Indigenous Australian stories about the Emu in the Sky come from all over the country.

Compared to constellations named by Babylonian and Ancient Greek astronomers, the emu is unique. In this case the name is not given to a group of stars forming a recognisable pattern. Instead, the emu shape is a silhouette made up of dark patches of gas and dust blocking light from the Milky Way. This is the Dark Emu in the title of Bruce Pascoe’s bestselling book.

The head is the dark Coalsack Nebula next to the Southern Cross and the neck extends through the middle of the “pointer stars” (Alpha and Beta Centauri). In December, the head of the emu is visible in the early morning before dawn.

We added the Great Celestial Emu to our Christmas tree by sprucing up a silver bauble with glitter.

Finish with some gardening and foraging

We can bring the outside in, or we can head out to enjoy nature in all its glory.

Being in nature has many benefits for health and wellbeing.

Many Australian plants will be flowering over summer, and they can be collected, dried, and placed in clear baubles to create simple, beautiful decorations for your tree.

Or you can get planting and grow your own Christmas tree, such as a cypress pine local to your area or even a Christmas bush.

Caitlyn Forster, Associate Lecturer, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney; Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, and Laura Nicole Driessen, Postdoctoral researcher in radio astronomy, University of Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Victorians are often credited with the invention of Christmas as we know it. That’s because the culture of Christmas was transformed during this period and expanded into a major holiday. It’s when several familiar Christmas staples emerged, such as decorated trees, cards and crackers.

While shop windows would be full of enticing commodities, and periodicals gave readers advice on what kinds of gifts to purchase (surrounded by columns of advertisements for new things to buy), the Victorians were also mindful of the excesses of the season and its injurious effect on their pockets.

Writing nostalgically about Christmas-time in the 1860s, even novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, the author of Vanity Fair, observed that it’s an excessive – and expensive – time of year. While young people gathered around the tree to enjoy toys and sweets, Thackeray would find himself worrying about bills and settling accounts.

If anything, the pressure to buy stuff has increased exponentially in the modern world. But there are ways to both reduce unnecessary spending, and to give gifts that are much more personal and meaningful. Here are a few Victorian paper crafts to try this Christmas, from greetings cards to decorations and games.

1. Collage your own cards

Christmas cards originated in the 1840s, following the success of Valentines, which had initiated the commercial manufacture of seasonal cards. By the end of the century, Christmas cards had become an even more popular trend than their romantic counterparts. They ranged from simple engravings to wildly elaborate creations – and many Victorians made their own.

Making your own cards means you can tailor them to your own aesthetic. The Victorians used various materials, from colourful printed scraps, to fabric swatches, feathers, beads and dried flowers. And they’d often combine them with their own hand-drawn illustrations.

The Victorians excelled at reusing the materials they already had to hand and paper could be expensive, so it was often repurposed. Recycling greetings cards by giving them new life as labels for presents is another thrifty way to reuse your old cards.

You can make them as small or as large as you like and most cards will probably have a blank reverse side that’s perfect for an inscription. My mum does this every year.

2. Make papier mâché presents

The technique of papier mâché – combining paper pulp and adhesive paste in a process that means “chewed paper” in French – goes back much further than the Victorians. By the 19th century, though, it was reasonably common. It was used to make light but strong decorative items and even furniture.

Papier mâché is a fun activity to try with family and friends. Use moulds, shape it firmly in layers with your fingers, or make supersized baubles by covering inflated balloons with layers of newspaper and flour-and-water gluepaste. Once dry, they can be painted.

3. Enjoy decorative paper cutting

Victorian paper weaving or decorative cutting were often very elaborate and the best pieces were framed for display. The easiest and most familiar type of paper cutting nowadays is probably making snowflakes.

Fold a circle of paper into quarters or eighths, then add strategic cuts to create gaps that, when unfolded, look like the crystalline structure of a snowflake.

They are quick and easy to do, and the end result can be stuck on windows or other surfaces for a little extra adornment.

4. Create handmade crackers

Crackers were another popular Victorian invention and they’re now synonymous with Christmas dinner. In 1847, confectioner Tom Smith started producing sugared almonds wrapped in colourful twists of paper enclosed with mottoes. He added his patented “snap” mechanism to them – the explosive “pop” crackers make when pulled apart that is now a staple feature of the Christmas cracker.

Cardboard snaps are readily available for purchase, and you can reuse old wrapping paper and toilet rolls. Add handwritten mottoes or jokes on little slips of paper for extra personality.

5. Compile your own anthologies

The Victorians were big believers in the power of the written word – but they weren’t above bowdlerising or borrowing from other works.

The 19th century saw a profusion of anthologies on various topics and themes, from sentimental collections of poetry, to potted histories of admirable figures designed to inspire the reader.

This year, why not make your own anthology? It could even have a festive theme: there are lots of novels, stories and poems about Christmas in the public domain to choose from. You could print your anthology at home, or hand-write it for that personal touch.

6. Make paper-based parlour games

Many Victorian families passed the time over the festive season by playing parlour games. Some have evolved into modern board games, but there are plenty that you can do yourself at home with only pens and paper.

One of these is Consequences. On a single sheet of paper, each player will begin by writing the first sentence of a story and folding it over before passing to the next player. They write their own addition to the story, before folding and passing it to the next player. The result is a humorously composite story.

A pictorial variation has the first player drawing a head, the next a torso and then the legs.

7. Scrapbook the festive season

Scrapbooking – pasting a range of cards, newspaper articles, colourful scraps and even pressed flowers into the leaves of a blank album or notebook – was a popular Victorian pastime, especially for women.

People would also solicit messages, poems, or illustrations from family and friends with which they could adorn the pages of their albums. Why not follow in their footsteps by curating a lasting memory of the festive period by making your own scrap album full of mementos and photos as a meaningful souvenir?

Alice Crossley, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Lincoln

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Summer is a wonderful time for families to go the beach and for small children to get to know the water and the sand.

But aside from being a place to relax, my new research shows how the beach provides many ways to teach young children about science.

My ‘beach kinder’ research

I research science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning in bush kinders. These are programs where preschool children regularly go into the natural environment with their daycare centre or kinder/preschool, to gain an appreciation for nature.

Educators do not take any toys, balls or games, so children are reliant only on what is available in nature for play.

Bush kinders often happen in parks, forests and gardens but educators and researchers are increasingly looking at the benefits of education around beaches. These “blue spaces” provide children with wide open spaces to learn through play.

But so far there has been little research on educational benefits of beach learning in early childhood settings.

Last year, I observed a “beach kinder”: where childhood educators and four- and five-year-old children went to the beach along Victoria’s Surf Coast. They were spending between three and five hours per week at the beach for a term as part of their regular kinder/preschool program.

What I noticed was how many opportunities the beach provides to teach little kids about science. Here are a three examples families can try on their next visit to the beach.

1. Rockpool life

When the tide is low, the ocean can expose a wide range of plant and animal life. Small fish, crabs, starfish, sea plants and maybe even an octopus can be found in rockpools. You can ask your child:

How many different animals can you see?

You can also search for barnacles that look like small volcanoes or periwinkles – the little snails that live in the splash zone. You can talk about how animals can sometimes be very small or hiding – just because we can’t see them does not mean they are not there.

You can talk to children about how these small animals survive as the tide rises and falls. For example, crabs bury themselves in the sand away from the water or other types of shellfish can shut their shells tightly to keep the water out. If possible, gently lift one for a look and then replace it just as gently.

You can explain life cycles and simple biology as you walk among the rockpools. For example, sea turtles lay their eggs on sandy beaches, then the baby turtles make their way to the sea where they mature into adults.

2. Sticky sand

Sand is an amazing thing to play with and it changes, depending on where you are on the beach.

Far away from the waters’ edge, have your child take a handful of dry sand and watch what happens as it slips through small hands. Walk closer to the water and do the same thing. Ask your child:

Have you ever wondered why dry and wet sand are so different?

You can explain how the water in the sand actually acts like glue, making the sand grains stick together. This lets us talk to young children about chemistry and how different materials interact with each other.

Try making sandcastles with wet sand and dry sand and see the difference.

Is one version harder to work with than the other other? What happens if you mix wet and dry sand together?

3. Watching the waves

The waves can teach us about floating, sinking and the force of water.

Children can have a lot of fun using pieces of seaweed or small sticks as boats, letting them bob up and down on small waves. They can even have “seaweed races” learning about how waves can move materials around.

Sea waves and ocean currents are really important as some marine animals such as dolphins and turtles use waves to move around. In fact, some animals migrate thousands of kilometres to and from breeding grounds.

You can then replace the seaweed pieces with shells and ask your child to observe what happens:

Why does the seaweed stay on top of the water, but the shell goes underneath?

Talk about how the shell is heavier than the water and so will sink. This helps them understand the physics of floating and sinking as well as the patterns associated with wave motion.

This summer when you’re at the beach, think about all the science happening around you. This could include the animals and habitats you encounter, as well as all the many, changes things happening with the sand and surf.

Chris Speldewinde, Research fellow, Research for Educational Impact Institute, Deakin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

As the weather gets warmer, it’s the perfect time for ice cream or a gelato. Who am I kidding? It’s the perfect time year round.

But what’s the difference between gelato and ice cream?

Not everyone agrees. Some people say they’re made with different amounts of fat. Others say it’s all about the air content.

To add to the confusion, gelato is the Italian word for any type of ice cream. But in Australia, gelato refers to the frozen dessert of Italian origin.

How are they similar?

Ice cream and gelato are both sweet desserts served cold. They both contain varying amounts of cream, milk, sugar, flavours, and sometimes eggs.

The fat component from the cream provides the richness, smoothness and body. Eggs are normally associated with gelato but can also be added to ice cream to enhance the richness.

Most commercial ice creams and gelato also contain emulsifiers. These are food additives that act as a stabiliser by preventing liquids that normally don’t mix from separating. Emulsifiers have been linked to numerous gut symptoms. However most of the evidence comes from laboratory and animal studies, and there is limited robust evidence of this in humans.

Ice cream and gelato are both made by churning (whipping) the ingredients, leading to air bubbles forming. In fact, it’s the air bubbles that allow us to eat these desserts frozen. It gives them a palatable texture and mouthfeel by making the mixture softer and lighter. Imagine how hard it would be to eat a hard lump of frozen dessert.

Many people assume both ice cream and gelato are good sources of calcium, presumably because they’re made from dairy products. But due to the low proportions of milk (it’s mostly cream, which contains less calcium), they both only provide about 65 milligrams of calcium per half cup. That’s about 7% of the daily calcium requirements for adults aged 19-50.

They also both contain small amounts of protein – about 2-3 grams per half cup. That’s only about 5% of your daily protein requirements.

So ice cream and gelato are not a valuable source of calcium and protein, making them of low nutritional value. That’s why they’re regarded as “sometimes” foods.

How are they different?

It’s about the air

The speed at which the mixture is churned can determine the amount of air it contains. This impacts the product’s thickness and smoothness.

Ice cream is traditionally churned faster than gelato. This means more air is incorporated, making it feel fluffy and creamy compared to gelato, which tends to feels thicker and richer.

It’s about the ice

Churning at a slower speed, as you would typically for gelato, also increases the size of ice crystals. Large ice crystals give a coarse icy texture, compared to a creamier texture from smaller ice crystals in ice cream.

How about the fat?

Although many websites say ice cream contains more fat than gelato, this is a tricky one to tease out.

In Australia, food standards say ice cream should contain at least 100g milk fat per kilogram (or 10% milk fat).

So products with less fat need to be called something else – frozen dessert, iced confection, even gelato. So, in theory, a lower-fat product made the same way as ice cream could be called gelato. Non-dairy products made the same way as ice cream could also be called gelato.

So how much milk fat does gelato need to contain? I can’t find any legal requirements in Australia or elsewhere. Cooking websites often refer to it having 4-9% milk fat. But depending on the recipe, it could be higher.

Fat content also differs from flavour to flavour. For example, if you compare the nutritional content of half a cup of vanilla ice cream with half a cup of vanilla gelato, the ice cream has 2g more fat. Other flavours will give different results.

How about the sugar or kilojules?

If we just compare half a cup of vanilla ice cream with half a cup of vanilla gelato, the gelato has about 3g more sugar. Again, different flavours will give different results. The difference in kilojoules is very small – 15kJ per half cup.

Overall, which one’s healthier?

Effectively there is little difference nutritionally between ice cream and gelato.

But brands and flavours vary considerably. They each use different amounts of cream, eggs and other ingredients. So kilojoule, fat and sugar content can vary considerably too.

Should you still eat them? Yes, absolutely if you enjoy them. However, both are classified as sometimes foods due to their added sugar and low level of nutrients. And perhaps limit your serve size.

Evangeline Mantzioris, Program Director of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Accredited Practising Dietitian, University of South Australia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.