Little light beetle – Wikipedia

Posted on by

The underside of the male with cream -colored luminous organisms

The Little light beetle , the Firefly or Johanniswürmchen ( Lamprohiza splendidul ) is a type of beetle of the lamp beetle (Lampyridae).

The beetles are 8 to 10 millimeters (male) or 10 millimeters (females) long. They have two large, transparent window spots on the neck shield that towers the head through which the dark complex eyes seem. The males are similar to the large light beetle ( Lampyris noctiluca ), whose neck shield has no window spots. Males and females from Lamprohiza splendidul It can be easily distinguished from each other: the female has only extremely short wing stub, so that the abdominal segmentation becomes visible and it is therefore similar to a larva. The body of the females is cream colored and translucent, so that some organs shimmer through. This transparency of the body enables the light to be shimmered through from the bottom of the body, where the luminous organs are located. In this way, the light of the female, who lives on the ground, can attract the males in the evening. The German name of the glowworm goes back to the larval -like shape and the luminous capacity of the females.
The males have fully trained and functional wings. Your body is flattened on the side, neck shield and front wing are gray -black. They stand on the sides of the body and cover their legs a day. In contrast to the females, the males have only two luminous organs on the abdomen side of the abdomen, which are noticed by their cream -colored color. The males of the little light beetle are the only nocturnal animals in Germany that can fly and shine.
Eggs, larvae and dolls also have luminous organs.

Filling sausages occur in moderate Europe. Your northern distribution limit is reached in Central Europe in Schleswig-Holstein. [first] You can find fireflies on meadows, in gardens and parks. At the swarming time of the beetles, on warm summer nights in June and July, you can still see them frequently in some areas. In Saxony, the public search was Where does the fireflies dance? From 2007 to 2009, several thousand males counted in one evening in some au forests. [2] Au forests were thus recognized as the ideal habitat of this light beetle. Outside of wet deciduous forests, fireflies occur regularly, but in small numbers.

According to Schwalb (1961), the little light beetle has a three -year life cycle.

The larvae hatch about 35 days after laying eggs. 34 months later they pupate themselves and after a rest phase of 7 days the beetles hatch. The lifespan of the male animals is 5 to 7 days, the female animals for 7 to 10 days. [3]

The adult animals (= beetles) fly from mid -May to the end of July, but mostly in the third Junidecade. The frequent occurrence around St. John’s Day also gave this beetle the German nickname of St. John’s Würmchen.

The males begin to fly and shine with darkness. Your ventral luminous organs send the light down and stimulate the females to glow. If a male has discovered a female in this way, it flies perpendicular to the female. Mating and laying eggs on the ground. Both partners die just a few days after pairing and egg laying.

The larvae eat snails (small nude and housing crooks), the mucus track is followed.
Adulted animals (i.e. the beetles) do not eat food, but water. They live from the fat reserves they created during the three -year larval development.

  • Females from below, without lightning

  • Females from above, without lightning

  • Females from above, photo montage

  • Hans Helmut Schwalb: Contributions to the biology of the local lampyrids Lampyris Noctiluca Geoffr. and Phausis Splendidula Lec. and experimental analysis of your prey catch and sexual behavior. In: Zoological yearbooks. Department of Systematics. Band 88, nr. 4, 1961, S. 399-550.
  • Helgard Reichholf-Rihm: Insects. With attachment sporders (= Steinbach’s nature guide. 7). Mosaik-Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-570-01187-9.
  1. ↑ Matthias Nuß, Jörg Seidel: Historical occurrence of the fireflies (Lamprohiza Splendidula (Linnaeus, 1767)) in Saxony (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). In: Saxon Entomological magazine. Band 3, 2008, ISSN  1864-2446 , S. 30–38 .
  2. ↑ Michael Münch, Matthias Nuß, Jörg Seidel: The fireflies (Lamprohiza Splendidula (Linnaeus, 1767)) in Saxony – Results of the Saxon search “Where does the fireflies dance?” From 2009 (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). In: Saxon Entomological magazine. Band 5, 2010, S. 40–48 .
  3. ↑ Glühwürmchen (Lamprohiza Splendidula (Linnaeus, 1767))). Insekten-Sachsen.de, Retrieved on June 12, 2019 .