The adult fireflies we can usually see are usually only about one centimeter long, even if they are larger, they are only 2 centimeters, have you ever seen a giant firefly with a body length of 5 centimeters? On June 19, the Chengdu Huaxi Entomological Museum collected a giant female adult firefly with a body length of more than 5 centimeters in Zhao Gong Mountain, Dujiangyan, Chengdu. According to reports, there are more than 30 luminous points on its body, and it will not flicker, and its brightness is far greater than that of ordinary fireflies.
↑ Giant fireflies
More than 30 "small lights" are draped all over the body
The brightness is far greater than that of ordinary fireflies
During the day, the female adult giant firefly looks exactly like a large yellow mealworm and is unremarkable. But at night, it miraculously glowed green, like a bunch of small lights. According to reports, there are more than 30 luminous points on its body, and it will not flicker, and its brightness is far greater than that of ordinary fireflies, and it can even illuminate the surrounding area of several centimeters, so that people can see the text on the newspaper.
Zhao Li, director of Chengdu Huaxi Insect Museum, identified it as a huge female fluorescent insect, because this strain was first collected in China, there is no Chinese name, Zhao Li named it giant female fluorescent fireflies according to its taxonomic status and physical characteristics. It is understood that the Latin scientific name of the giant female light firefly is Rhagophthalmus giganteus, first discovered in 1888, and its previous known distribution was Thailand and Myanmar.
↑ Giant fireflies are over 5 cm long
Hide during the day
At night, the air humidity exceeds 90% before coming out to move
Zhao Li introduced that it is well known that fireflies have biological fluorescence phenomena, while fireflies in the narrow sense only refer to fireflies, and fireflies in the broad sense include fireflies and female fluorescent insects.
When consulting relevant information, Zhao Li found that this family of species is likely to have been found in China many times in the past. Due to the very similar appearance of this taxon, the giant female light fluorescent fireflies found in China in the past are often misidentified as large field female light fluorescent fireflies (Rhagophthalmus Ohbai). The Oba female firefly was first discovered in 1986 by Dr. Nobuyoshi Oba, a Japanese firefly expert, in Okinawa's Iriomote Island.
Zhao Li introduced that although the appearance of the giant female fluorescent fireflies when they shine is similar to that of the large female fireflies, the body size is much larger than the latter, and the female adult body length of the large female light fireflies is only 2 centimeters, and the body length of the species is more than 5 centimeters.
Zhao Li said that when he searched for relevant information on the Internet, he found that in Places such as Gulin County and Guizhou in Sichuan, some people had found female fluorescent fireflies up to 5 centimeters long, which were mistaken for large female fluorescent fireflies. In early June 2020, a giant firefly was also photographed in Zhao Gongshan, which was described as 5-6 centimeters in length, because he had not seen the actual object, and Zhao Li also thought that this was an exaggerated description.
↑ Giant fireflies glow in a ring at night
Zhao Li introduced that adult female fluorescent insects mostly appear in April and June, and male insects will fly, but they will not emit light. The female will glow on the tail before mating, and the light spots are strong and pronounced. After mating and laying eggs, the whole body node emits a ring-shaped light, which has a protective warning effect and is also an egg protection behavior, and the female can live up to three months.
At present, the Huaxi Entomological Museum has raised this giant female light firefly. After preliminary observation, it was found that it usually hid in the soil and only came out at night when the air humidity reached more than 90%. Zhao Li said that it will further observe its life habits.
Red Star News reporter Dai Jiajia provided a picture by the interviewee
Edited by Yu Manga
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