File: <lampyrid.htm> [For teaching
purposes only; do not review, quote or abstract] Terminology <Principal
Natural Enemy Groups>
|
COLEOPTERA, Lampyridae Please refer also to the
following links for details on this group:
Members of this family are the fireflies or
glowworms, which are found worldwide, being conspicuous because of the
luminescence produced by certain organs.
All stages show luminescence, even the eggs have a faint glow due to
the material with which they are coated at the time of oviposition. Several species are diurnal and have the
luminescence organs only slightly developed or entirely lacking. Females of most species are wingless and
somewhat larviform and of much greater size than males. A few species are considered phytophagous
as adults (Williams 1917), although the majority, both adults and larvae,
seem to limit feeding to snails, with some evidence that cutworms and
earthworms also form part of the diet.
The amount of food consumed by the larvae is much greater than that
consumed by adults, with many of the latter not feeding at all. Larvae are thought to inject a powerful
toxic agent into the body of the snail host, for death occurs quickly after
attack, even though the mechanical injury is usually very light (Clausen
1940/62). In Asia, several species are aquatic, the
larvae of some living in clear flowing streams, while others inhabit standing
water such as in rice fields. Their food
consists almost entirely of aquatic snails.
The larvae of most terrestrial species seem to live ca. two years,
while aquatic forms have an annual cycle.
Hibernation is as larvae in a soil chamber on or underneath the
surface. They usually pupate in a
soil cell, beneath trash or on the surface in moist situations. Early accounts of the biology of several
common North American species was given by Hess (1920). The life history and behavior of Lamprophorus tenebrosus Wlk. were studied by
Hutson & Austin (1924). This
species is predaceous on the terrestrial African or Kalutara snail, Achatina fulica Fer., as pest of truck crops in Ceylon. Luciola
cruciata Motsch. in Japan is
an natural enemy of aquatic snails (Okada 1928, Kanda 1933). In the tropics the control of these snails
is important, not because they inflict direct damage but because they are
intermediate hosts of human pathogens.
Lampyris noctiluca L. was imported to
New Zealand from England for the biological control of Helix adspersa
Mull. (Clausen 1940/62).
References:
Please refer to <biology.ref.htm>,
[Additional references may be found at: MELVYL
Library] |