''Anoplognathus prasinus'', commonly known as the green Christmas beetle, is a

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

of the family

Scarabaeidae The family Scarabaeidae, as currently defined, consists of over 35,000 species of beetles worldwide; they are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family has undergone significant change. Several groups formerly tre ...

native to eastern Australia. The green Christmas beetle was described by

Francis de Laporte de Castelnau Francis may refer to: People and characters *Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church (2013–2025) *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Francis (surname) * Francis, a character played by YouTuber Boogie2 ...

in 1840 as ''Paranonca prasina''. It was transferred to the genus '' Anoplognathus'' in 1873 by Lansberge. The species is apple green overall, with red-yellow translucent edging to its head, clypeofrontal suture and

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on e ...

. The abdomen is a brown-green colour, the coxae and legs are a yellow-green and tarsi red-brown. The adult male is 18–20 mm long while the female is 21–22 mm long.

References

Scarabaeidae Beetles described in 1840 {{Scarabaeidae-stub