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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Polyphaga » Series Elateriformia » Elateroidea » Fireflies (Lampyridae) » Lampyrinae » Pleotomini » Pleotomus » Pleotomus pallens

Species Pleotomus pallens

Classification · Explanation of Names · Identification · Range · Food · Life Cycle · See Also · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited
Pleotomus pallens LeConte - Pleotomus pallens - male Pleotomus pallens LeConte - Pleotomus pallens - male Glowbug - Pleotomus pallens - female Glowbug - Pleotomus pallens - female Firefly - Pleotomus pallens - male Pale Firefly - Pleotomus pallens Pale firefly - Pleotomus pallens Firefly - Pleotomus pallens - male
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Elateriformia)
Superfamily Elateroidea
Family Lampyridae (Fireflies)
Subfamily Lampyrinae
Tribe Pleotomini
Genus Pleotomus
Species pallens (Pleotomus pallens)
Explanation of Names
Pleotomus pallens LeConte 1866
pallens = 'pale'
Identification
adult female:
Range
sc US (mostly NM-TX-OK, plus singletons from KS & MO) (AL?(1))) / Mex. - Map (2)
Lloyd (1990) reported Pleotomus pallens from east-central Alabama as "rare, "never" seen except in traps." (1), but might this have been Pleotomus davisii??
Food
Larvae feed on snails; adult females do not feed (King 1880)
Life Cycle
The rearmost ventral segments of this [adult female] were glowing a fluorescent green inches above the ground around 11pm. The critter was under a short juniper tree, aiming its abdomen out towards a large clearing. (J. Lapp, pers. obs., 2012)
See Also
Pleotomus davisii LeConte - there are a number of e. US observations on iNat that are left at Pleotomus sp. due to the difficulty of separating pallens and davisii
- scattered e. US records?
Det. L. Faust, 2014
Print References
King H.S. (1880) Life history of Pleotomus pallens LeC. Psyche 3: 51-53. (Full text)
LeConte, J.L. (1866) Descriptions of New Species. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 6 (4): 67-168.
Lloyd, J.E. 1990. Checklist and keys to fireflies of east-central Alabama. Stridulator 4(3): 9-21. (1)
Zaragoza-Caballero S. (1992) Variabilidad y registros nuevos para México de Pleotomus pallens (Coleoptera: Lampyridae: Pleotomini). Anales del Instituto de Biología, UNAM (Serie Zoologí­a) 63: 221-235.cite:748941]
Internet References
Type - MCZ, Harvard
Pleotomus - iNat (3)
Works Cited
1.Checklist and keys to fireflies of east-central Alabama.
Lloyd, J.E. 1990. Stridulator 4(3): 9-21.
2.Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
3.iNaturalist
Contributed by John F. Carr on 28 January, 2009 - 8:48pm
Additional contributions by Mike Quinn, v belov
Last updated 10 August, 2024 - 3:00pm

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