This one has a longer head than the usual Christmas beetles we might see. Technically, it is a stag beetle, rather than a Christmas beetle.

They belong to different families.

The stag beetles - especially the males - have prominent pincer-like segments on the front of their heads. The one in the photo is a male.

The gloss of this smooth, hard and metallic beetle is stunning and eye-catching. Others of the same species may be bluer, browner, redder or greener.

The colour extends to their feet. An average length is about 20 millimetres, but some can reach 25 mm.

The true Christmas beetles (in the scarab beetle family) are rather rounder, with shorter heads.

Although they can be impressive glossy bronze or gold, they seldom match the colour of the stag beetle in this photograph.

Christmas beetles in general are scarcer than they once were, to the point where there is concern felt for their long-term future.

The drier years have not helped them, but perhaps the two recent damper years will boost their numbers.

There has been concern raised about the decline in numbers of Christmas beetles, and the stag beetles are probably in the same situation.

Like the true Christmas beetles, the stag beetles are native Australian insects, and they feed on nectar from flowers, especially eucalypts. Sometimes they sample soft fruit or berries.

Their large white grubs feed on rotting logs, and the well-armoured adult male often defends a territory on top of a log, using its mandibles (jaws) for fighting.

As the University of the Sunshine Coast's Erin Siostrom writes in The Conversation, if you can remember the 1980s and 1990s, chances are you have fond childhood memories of these metallic beauties clinging to your screen door, or buzzing indignantly as they try to turn themselves right side up on your driveway.

These days, Christmas beetles don't seem to arrive in large numbers. There are 36 species of these shiny scarab beetles nationwide, but sightings are falling.

We don't know the full story, but we have clues. Almost one in four of Australia's native eucalyptus species are now threatened with extinction, with some populations dropping by half due to land clearing and urbanisation.

That's a major problem for Christmas beetles. Their larvae depend on plant roots and the adults emerge after thunderstorms to snack on eucalyptus leaves. Two key species they like to eat - yellow box and fuzzy box - have just been listed as threatened.

Without intervention, such sightings will become increasingly rare.

If you do see Christmas beetles this summer, you can help by logging your sighting on the iNaturalist beetle count to help scientists understand where these Christmas favourites are still visiting.

A photo from a reader shows a three-quarter-grown masked lapwing (spur-winged plover) swimming in open water.

The question is asked: do adult lapwings swim?

The answer is, probably not.

Although they can no doubt swim if they need to, the adults have wings to take them to other places. They can readily lift off the ground and fly short or long distances, so they have no reason to swim.

A bird with an injured wing would probably swim for whatever distance was required. It would probably feel safer in watery or swampy conditions than it would on land.

Lapwing chicks swim quite readily. For their first few days, any that are hatched on small islands swim to land in the morning and back again for safety at night. They are guided by their calling parents, who have flown before them.

I found this frog in our wading pool. I put a plank in the pool so it could get away and haven't seen it since. Can you tell me what it is? C.P., Amherst

This is a spotted marsh-frog, identified by the prominent stipe down its back and the generally spotted pattern.

This is a fairly common frog locally.

Although it can reach around 50 mm in length, it is often a bit smaller. The back stripe is often reddish.

The Striped Marsh-frog is rather similar, but it lives up to its name by being more striped than spotted.

It tends to be a larger species, and it too can have a stripe down its back.

In dry times it shelters in cracks in the ground, often under large rocks.

The spotted marsh - frog is usually found near water.

It is often the first frog to colonise new wetlands.

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