Solly's breakfast beetles

My sister and her husband have a dog called Solly. He is large and bumbling and beautiful.

Like all dogs he has some less than savoury behaviours. He likes to eat Christmas beetles and the poor blighters have no defences against his voracious appetite particularly in the morning when they are on their backs, tired from the night's activities. I know how they feel.

This last Christmas Eve I joined my sister to make some Christmas crackers. We are far from Martha Stewart, just sick of cheap plastic gifts probably manufactured by some poor kid and tired old jokes that you only laugh at when you have well and truely passed your bubble juice quota. As we left the house I noticed a number of Christmas beetles flapping and flopping around the verandah lights, the first time I had seen them in such numbers since coming back to Australia three years ago, or is it four? 

I became nostalgic, and recalled memories from past seasons as a child. God how horrible it is to succomb to sentimentalities. Here I go...down reminisce road.

Christmas as a child was about the smell of the pine tree, the excitement of trying to guess what my presents where before unwrapping them, the taste of Nanna's Louie pudding, the presence of Christmas beetles and the fun of a family cricket match. The presence of the beetle that night teleported me straight back to being 7 again and all the wonderment at the day ahead. How lucky I am!

And I owe this all to the humble Christmas beetle, which I know nothing about other than Solly likes them for breakfast.

So in homage to the beetle I did a bit of research. It is after all only right that should they give me the gift of 'wonder', I at least know who they are.

They belong to the scarab family (Scarabaeidae), the same family that spawned that horrible scene in 'The Mummy' where Beni Gabor a cowardly Hungarian thief,  is devoured by a hoard of them. The scarab family is about 30,000 strong and I guess every family has to have someone who goes off the rails and devours someone! The Christmas beetle is far more likable. They come out at Christmas time to mate and lay eggs into the soil surface, and stumble into human domain as they are attracted to our bright lights in the evening. Where I am from they are greenish black or brown in colour and around 2cm in size. They are very fond of eucalypts and feed on the leaves often with much leaf matter falling to the ground in waste. I think they may be bingeing! Much like many of us at Christmas.

Solly's breakfast beetles were a welcome addition to my holiday season. They filled Solly's belly and gave me a little more Christmas spirit.