# Please identify this Australian bug

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-australian-bug/736480>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 3, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-australian-bug/736480 "2015-11-03T00:31:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-australian-bug/736480/1 "2015-11-03T00:31:14Z")

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[Photo](http://i.imgur.com/FFUFGrV.jpg)

Does anyone recognise this insect? Is it a good bug that should be let go, or a bad bug that should be killed?

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-australian-bug/736480/2 "2015-11-03T01:55:03Z")

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Looks like a click beetle to me.  
They are generally innocuous.

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**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-australian-bug/736480/3 "2015-11-03T01:59:35Z")

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Harmless.  
Leave it alone unless you’ve found it outside Australia.

Of course if you are an American tourist; it probably will kill you just for the hell of it as with other creatures from Australia

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**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-australian-bug/736480/4 "2015-11-03T02:23:53Z")

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My guess: [jewel beetle](http://australianmuseum.net.au/jewel-beetle).

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**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-australian-bug/736480/5 "2015-11-03T02:43:23Z")

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Thank you for your help, it does look like a click beetle. I’ve released it well away from the garden, just on the off chance that it’s one of the varieties whose larvae will damage plants’ roots.

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**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-australian-bug/736480/6 "2015-11-03T09:16:19Z")

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> [@Grumman](#):
>
> Thank you for your help, it does look like a click beetle.

Definitely not a click beetle. They have very characteristic spines at the outside edges of the thorax. This specimen clearly doesn’t.

**blondebear** ’s jewel beetle is a good guess.