Lampyrid Larva - Lucidota atra

this is an Ellychnia and it g

this is an Ellychnia and it goes under the species complex epithet 'corrusca'. All the information in the photos above, except the adult, are new to science. The larvae, pupae, and luminous capacity are all unknown. It's taxonomic relationship to the Pacific Coast species is highly tentative for several reasons. The color pattern motif is used by several other genera; corrusca is the only Ellychnia species complex in the east, whereas all the other Ellycnia are west coast strand species except for E. bivulnerata, which has nothing to do with Ellychnia anyhow. And the gross body structure is all wrong too. I would think that the coastal strand species are paleobiogeographically continuous with Pyractena of Chile whereas the inland species are of mexican origin.

… joeCicero, 6 January, 2009 - 9:05pm

Are you for certain??

This specimen developed into a Lucidota atra. It was the only Lampyrid larva that I found on that day, from which I tracked the rest of its development and even observed eclosion of the adult. The larva and pupa of L. atra is described by Branham and Archangelsky 2000.
I am currently studying the northeastern Lampyridae at the University of Guelph Insect Systematics Lab. So I'm very familiar with L. atra as well as the E. corrusca complex, having examined hundreds of specimens for each species. I've also had to key out a number of western Ellychnia such as E. facula, greeni, and californica.

… Stephen Luk, 6 January, 2009 - 9:37pm

My mistake, I was on the wron

My mistake, I was on the wrong plate when I wrote that; it is an L. atra and my comment belongs on an Ellychnia plate elsewhere. How do I delete or withdraw comments?

… joeCicero, 6 January, 2009 - 9:44pm

As far as I know...

you can't. But you can click "edit comment" and replace the text with "*" or "-"...

… Stephen Luk, 6 January, 2009 - 9:49pm

Moved

Moved from Fireflies.

… Stephen Luk, 10 May, 2007 - 10:21pm