The fiddler beetle was originally described by Anglo Irish naturalist Edward Donovan as Cetonia australasiae in his 1805 work An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of New Holland, New Zealand, New Guinea, Otaheite, and other Islands in the Indian, Southern, and Pacific Oceans.

It was reclassified in and became the type species of the new genus Eupoecila by German entomologist Hermann Burmeister in 1842.

These beetles are strong flyers and can fly without moving the elytra; they spend much of the time searching for nectar and plant exudates.

[3] The fiddler beetle measures 15–20 millimetres (0.6–0.8 in) in length, its body patterned dark brown and lime green to yellow.

Adult beetles burrow through the soil and emerge in early summer, and feed on nectar-laden flowers.