Fireflies (Lampyridae)

Only once I brought it out, although I found the larva in April (apparently it needs wintering before pupation). She ate earthworms from me (contrary to popular opinion, she refused slugs) and turned out to be a female.

This post was edited by vasiliy-feoktistov - 14.11.2010 19: 06

Was the larva large? I'm reading here right now what is on the web about their biology, it says that the larva pupates before wintering, and in the spring the imago comes out. So far, I'm thinking about two options - either arrange her wintering now and grow it later, or try to feed her now and without wintering. Last year I also found a larva, or rather I didn't find it, but I took it to grow, but it was at the beginning of summer, and the larva was small, so maybe it was a juvenile larva or this species has a larva that overwinters twice.
Nothing worked out for me with her then, I gave her sliced locusts(bellies), and she didn't eat them at all.
If you could still find a larva, you could experiment, but they are very rare.

Last age was (pupated immediately). And I have repeatedly seen such people in our country in April and early May.
Yes, I will add: they like wet places (where birch sap pours on the ground, you need to look for it in the litter).

This post was edited by vasiliy-feoktistov - 14.11.2010 19: 27

I was breeding beetles from larvae. It is easy to collect them: in Avnust and until autumn, they are found quite massively, where they are. The larvae glow in the dark as green, twinkling dots. You go at night and collect (by shining a flashlight at the point). Why do immature larvae glow here is the question. Some even climb higher on the low branches of a shrub 30 cm above the ground. Larvae and adult beetles live in swampy, damp places. They feed on earthworms and small gastropods.In captivity, they eat chicken and other meat , entrails. They don't eat insects. All winter we stood in a warm room in a container with earth . Moisturized every 2-3 days . They require good ventilation. The beetles were hatched without any problems. Males and females. I do not know how to keep adults.

My larva once molted, and I forgot to moisten the peat in the jar where it was sitting, and it molted in a dry substrate(it was dry for about a week), so it turns out that it is well adapted to dry conditions. I feed them crushed aquarium reels and marbles.
Also stands in the room, at a temperature of about 26C, in a jar of peat without a lid.

I myself read that the larvae also glow at night, crawling out into open areas. That's why I hoped that it would glow, but no, it doesn't. And at night there is no way to search, so of course it would be interesting..

The larva and beetle are able to adjust the intensity of the glow. If there are disturbing factors, such as light, vibration, or air movement, it *goes out*. After a few minutes ,the glow resumes. Put the larva in a completely dark room (for example, I kept my own in the bathroom), turn off the light and wait a few minutes, quietly and without moving, it should *light up.* I did not meet any non-glowing larvae, all of them were glowing.

If you could still find a larva, you could experiment, but they are very rare.

In the Crimea, larvae can often be found under rocks in winter.
Nutrition process - http://crimea.fotopage.ru/data/thumbnails.php?album=726

Oh, so that's what it can be, of course, I turn my larva around in a jar in my hands before taking it to a dark place, so she's probably afraid. It's just that I read such a story a long time ago -" It's alive, and it glows " was called in my opinion. How someone traded a firefly for a dump truck, and then it glowed in his matchbox, like judging by the story-the boy always carried it with him, and it glowed constantly. So it's probably not true?

Here, too, you can probably find it in winter, but not now And in the Crimea, somenevayus that you will find it now, no matter how - winter. But from next week - spring, so you can look for it.

Yes, that's exactly what the story was called. From the series "Deniskin's stories". Author V. Dragunsky. I was also struck at one time,but at that time I had no idea where to look for fireflies, I thought it was exotic. It's actually a fairly common beetle. Yes, indeed, when shaking and carrying the larva "goes out". In nature, those larvae that I observed could not only "go out" and "light up", but also change the intensity of the glow. Of course, this is natural, and you also need to turn off the light that unmasks (for example, from predators).

I also thought about the same thing then that a firefly is something fabulous, but only last year I saw the larva of a firefly live. And then, I found it, while searching for all sorts of runners. Since that time, I haven't found any larvae, although I've reviewed a lot of stones, but I didn't set out to find them, so maybe I didn't notice them. And then, in November, I found it.
Today I will try to put the jar in a prominent place, and watch at night. Especially since there will be a storm today, I'll watch the storm for one thing
In general, it would be necessary for her to make normal conditions, and then live in a bank and in peat...

It would be interesting to recreate in what thread of a container, such as an aquarium, the living conditions to place several larvae there and observe whether they really have communication. Only in the dark you can't see what's going on, and in the light they don't glow. Perhaps red light is not a hindrance to them, many insects do not perceive this spectrum...

I have such a terrarium - 150X50X50. In addition, it is inhabited by various snails, earthworms and woodlice in abundance. But one larva is scary to let in there. Firstly, it will get lost, secondly, and suddenly the croaks will eat it, they also hunt at night. And so, interseno, if it works, I'll try. For one interseno, see how the glow will affect the hunting of croaks.

... and suddenly the croaks will eat it, they also hunt at night. And so, interseno, if it works, I'll try. Take a look at how the glow will affect the hunting of tree frogs in one interseno.

Fireflies are toxic to amphibians. He repeatedly raised tropical fireflies by feeding aquatic mollusks from an aquarium, and even received unfertilized glowing eggs. Alas, colleagues always brought single copies that did not leave any hope of obtaining offspring. And no promises were made to encourage the "swamp snake catchers" to recruit aquatic firefly larvae that are promising for keeping and breeding in aquaterrariums. There is such an exhibition in Tokyo's TAMA ZOO.

Can water slugs complete a full cycle in an aquaterrarium
?
As for the toxicity to amphibians, oh, these amphibians, these croaks have already eaten so much in the terrarium that they could have been poisoned a little bit, you probably need to let them go, since many experiments are simply not possible due to the fact that croaks eat everyone.

Do you know where there is some data on the species diversity of fireflies? I found it here:

"Our fireflies, and there are 12 species of them on the territory of Russia and neighboring countries, are not much inferior to" tropical lamps": they give quite a strong light."

That is, there are several species in the CIS, as I understand it, interseno, what is the diversity in Ukraine, the way of life, are they all terrestrial?

http://www.tropicarium.ru/aquatilis.htm

http://tokyo-hotaru.com/

This is not a firefly larva

Does it glow in the dark?
This creature, I don't remember its name, has only one thing in common with the firefly - the presence of the luminous enzyme luciferase..

Does it glow in the dark?
This creature, I don't remember its name, has only one thing in common with the firefly - the presence of the luminous enzyme luciferase..

What are you talking about?

I accidentally found a firefly. I brought it home in a jar of weed. I read what they eat. The next day he went to the dacha, returned a day later, and this smart guy somehow got out of the jar, although the tallest blade of grass did not reach the middle of the jar, and managed to get into the spider web behind the cabinet. It hung there wrapped in cobwebs and glowed very faintly. I pulled it out, removed the cobwebs. The firefly was slightly dry, I don't even know how to describe its appearance correctly. I slightly dripped water on it, so to speak, moistened it... His legs are bent, he is soft. It's been glowing like this for a day now.
Can a dead firefly glow? Is there any hope that he is still alive, and if so, how to pump him out, return to normal?

And where can you find fireflies near Moscow?

I saw fireflies near Kashira and in Obninsk.

This is goose bumps.

passion777, why do you need this forum?

I saw fireflies near Kashira and in Obninsk.

It would be more interesting to take a closer look.
In the area of Zhukovsky, as I understand it, there are.

It would be more interesting to take a closer look.
In the area of Zhukovsky, as I understand it, there are.

A few years ago, he caught larvae and adult females en masse in the Istra reservoir.

A few years ago, he caught larvae and adult females en masse in the Istra reservoir.

And in what places are they found there and at what time of year are there a lot of them?

In late June and early July, I looked under Mansurovo on Malaya Istra (a fairly close region), but so far I haven't noticed any fireflies.

This post was edited by Atropos - 31.07.2016 22: 27

He repeatedly raised tropical fireflies by feeding aquatic mollusks from an aquarium, and even received unfertilized glowing eggs. Alas, colleagues always brought single copies that did not leave any hope of obtaining offspring. And no promises were made to encourage the "swamp snake catchers" to recruit aquatic firefly larvae that are promising for keeping and breeding in aquaterrariums. Such an exhibition is available in Tokyo's TAMA ZOO.

Does anyone want to plant Photinus pyralis fireflies?



They usually look something like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

In the ground (layers of sand+earth or a sweep of sand + flower soil/earth), the larvae live well. They feed on earthworms. (On artificial media - like here Larvae spend most of their time in the ground, so they are rarely seen.

This post was edited by Atropos - 07.02.2018 09: 02

I was breeding beetles from larvae. It is easy to collect them: in Avnust and until autumn, they are found quite massively, where they are. The larvae glow in the dark as green, twinkling dots. You go at night and collect (by shining a flashlight at the point). Why do immature larvae glow here is the question. Some even climb higher on the low branches of a shrub 30 cm above the ground. Larvae and adult beetles live in swampy, damp places. They feed on earthworms and small gastropods.In captivity, they eat chicken and other meat , entrails. They don't eat insects. All winter we stood in a warm room in a container with earth . Moisturized every 2-3 days . They require good ventilation. The beetles were hatched without any problems. Males and females. I do not know how to keep adults.

By the way, interesting videos on captive breeding of Sardinian Lampyris (in principle, very close to the usual Eurasian Lampyris noctiluca): 1, 2, 3.

Can a dead firefly glow?

Sometimes it can. I saw how
1) a flashlight glows in an accidentally crushed (flattened) firefly.
2) the piece of flashlight left after the firefly was eaten by another beetle glows.
It can glow for quite a long time (like an hour).
In one video about Sardinian fireflies, it is shown that female Lampyris can glow even after death (when they lay eggs): Youtube.

This post was edited by Atropos - 07.02.2018 09: 14

  
Sometimes it can. I saw how
1) a flashlight glows in an accidentally crushed (flattened) firefly.
2) the piece of flashlight left after the firefly was eaten by another beetle glows.
It can glow for quite a long time (like an hour).
In one video about Sardinian fireflies, it is shown that female Lampyris can glow even after death (when they lay eggs): Youtube.

Glow and not only accidentally crushed-in general, in the south, where there are plenty of fireflies in the summer, the knacker's method of "painting" is very common among children, when they draw a firefly on the asphalt or even write a word that glows for a while (but not necessary).

Glow and not only accidentally crushed-in general, in the south, where there are plenty of fireflies in the summer, the knacker's method of "painting" is very common among children, when they draw a firefly on the asphalt or even write a word that glows for a while (but not necessary).

It's creepy. I read that somewhere they use fireflies (and better yet, click beetles) as lamps, but such an application did not occur to me.

Speaking of the glow of dead fireflies: if you freeze a firefly at -80 and then defrost it, the flashlight also glows quite noticeably (in the dark).

This post was edited by Atropos - 02/23/2018 09: 02