Here are two photos of some exquisite,
deep blue, very shiny beetles my friend and I found in a particular kind
of vegetation, a few km. north of the Darby River mouth, on the north-west
coast of Wilson's Promontory (the southernmost point on the Australian
Mainland). They are no more than 6mm (1/4") long. I have previously
seen larger metallic beetles, such as "Christmas" beetles which appear
in summer. Christmas beetles are generally gold and green and can
be over half and inch long. I once stuck one upside down and viewed
its scrambling legs with my stereo microscope (~ 7x). It was the
most graphic, robotic, colourful sight I have ever seen. These blue
beetles would have been great under the microscope, and they were plentiful
where we found them, but it didn't occur to us to take any home.
It is a National Park, so we shouldn't have taken them anyway.
