It was late autumn again, and Zhao Li, director of the Chengdu Huaxi Insect Museum, walked on the tourist road of Qingcheng Mountain, and it took half an hour from the museum to the mountain gate, and then to the top of the mountain, it took more than an hour. On October 25th, he set off a little late, and after a hundred or two hundred meters of "natural pictures", he met his old friend, the yellow-edged short-angle window firefly.
Long exposure shots of yellow-rimmed short-angle window fireflies
Yellow-rimmed short-angle window fireflies
This firefly, which was only named in 2001, was first seen by Zhao Li in Mount Qingcheng in 2017. Because of its small size, it flies like a floating lamp. This time, Zhao Li noticed that they were denser and more widely distributed. In half a month, they moved down a few hundred meters from the top of the mountain to the mountainside.
"There are more than a dozen kinds of fireflies on Mount Qingcheng, and it is only present in October and is expected to last until early November." Zhao Li said.
In late autumn, the mountainside encounters yellow-rimmed short-angled window fireflies, which are very dense
Chengdu Huaxi Insect Museum is at the foot of Qingcheng Mountain, and Zhao Li usually climbs the mountain once a week in the evening. It takes about 30 to 40 minutes to get from the museum to the mountain gate, and it takes about an hour to go up the tourist road to the old junge on the top of the mountain. On the 25th, Zhao Li went out a little late, he looked at the time, it was already 17:40.
Enter the mountain gate, climb the mountain, and the sky darkens little by little. At about 18:40, after a hundred or two hundred meters of "natural pictures," "it was dark." Zhao Li told Red Star News that there is a stream near this section of the road, which is more humid and is also where two waves of fireflies appeared a few months ago. In Zhao Li's memory, May was the duan black fluorescent, and july and August were the qiongyu fireflies. Just after arriving here on the 25th, Zhao Li noticed a little fluorescence, and slowly flew out of the jungle on both sides of the road, floating in the mountains, "very dense."
"The fluorescence brightness is much worse than the previous two." After Zhao Li carefully inspected it, he found that this time he encountered the yellow edge short-angle window fireflies, "Among the fireflies that are active near Qingcheng Mountain, they are the smallest and their flight ability is not enough, so they look like they are floating with the wind." "Because of the low brightness, I want to photograph them," the camera's exposure time should be set to 3 minutes. In contrast, the exposure time of the two fireflies mentioned above can be set at about 15 seconds when shooting.
In fact, half a month ago, Zhao Li saw the yellow edge short-angle window firefly near the Old Junge Pavilion on the top of the mountain. On the 25th, when Zhao Li returned to the vicinity of Laojun Pavilion, the density of fireflies and the mountainside could not be compared, "very sparse, three or five." He speculated that the fireflies had moved down a few hundred meters to the mountainside, perhaps related to recent changes in the weather.
On Mount Qingcheng, only this firefly will appear in October
For Zhao Li, "Yellow Edge Short-angle Window Firefly" and he can also be regarded as an old friend. In late October 2017, he also met them in Mount Qingcheng, a discovery described by Zhao Li as a "yellow-edged short-angle window firefly" that was first discovered in Sichuan. The firefly was only discovered in 2001, when no previous records have been recorded in other provinces except Shandong and Taiwan. Zhao Li told Red Star News that it seems that this firefly is relatively rare, "even after the 2017 report, there is no public report found by netizens or experts in other places."
Fluorescence of yellow-rimmed short-angle window fireflies
According to Zhao Li's observations, the yellow-edged short-angle window fireflies on the mountainside this year have a higher density, which "may be related to the particularly humid climate and rainy rain this year, which is conducive to their reproduction." On the other hand, the distribution area has also expanded, "I didn't encounter them on the mountainside, and there was also a lot of density in the ancient road near the Yuanming Palace." "In addition, compared with previous years, the occurrence period of fireflies this year is also relatively long," for example, the dome fireflies, which were gradually reduced after mid-August, were still there this year and early September, extending for more than ten days. Zhao Li explained that the occurrence period is when a large number of adult insects are seen.
Zhao Li introduced that there are more than a dozen kinds of fireflies in Qingcheng Mountain, the number of the above three species is the largest, and the rest there are mountain window fireflies, female fluorescent fireflies, Yunnan flat fireflies, etc., "but they are relatively small, can not form a large landscape." Of the dozens of fireflies, only the yellow-rimmed short-angle window fireflies appear in October and are "expected to last until early November."
Red Star News reporter Peng Liang according to the interviewee
Edited by Zhang Li
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