Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Ellychnia - Diurnal Fireflies

Lucidota sp. Firefly? - Ellychnia corrusca Ellychnia corrusca Ellychnia corrusca Lampyrid - Ellychnia corrusca Winter Firefly - Ellychnia corrusca - Ellychnia Diurnal Firefly - Ellychnia? - Ellychnia Ellychnia corrusca - Winter Firefly - Ellychnia corrusca Ellychnia corrusca
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 Lucidotini
Genus Ellychnia (Diurnal Fireflies)
Other Common Names
Day-flying Firefly, Winter Firefly
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
several spp. from sw. US (E. flavicollis, E. bivulneris) and the Pacific coast currently placed here are not congeneric with E. corrusca and appear to be more closely related to Vesta (another messed up taxon) or a discontinuous coastal complex that includes the Chilean Pyractena. --based on Joe Cicero's 29.viii.2014 comment
Explanation of Names
Ellychnia Blanchard 1845
Greek 'lamp wick' (from lychnos 'lamp')
Numbers
>12 spp. in our area (needs revision)(1)
Size
5‒14 mm
Identification
see (2)
Range
across NA, but uncommon in Great Basin, Great Plains and se US(1)
Habitat
Active during the day; common on tree trunks in spring, on goldenrod and asters in autumn(3), or on flowers and grassy vegetation, esp. in moist habitats(4)
Works Cited
1.American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea
Arnett, R.H., Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
2.Ellychnia of western North America (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)
K.M. Fender. 1970. Northwest Science 44: 31-43.
3.Peterson Field Guides: Beetles
Richard E. White. 1983. Houghton Mifflin Company.
4.Field Guide to Beetles of California
Arthur V. Evans and James N. Hogue. 2006. University of California Press.