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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
Photo#664427
Glowbug - Pleotomus pallens - female
Copyright © 2012 Joe Lapp

Glowbug - Pleotomus pallens - Female
Dripping Springs, Hays County, Texas, USA
June 26, 2012
Size: 2-3 cm
The rearmost ventral segments of this critter 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. I am not expert at taking night shots and could not capture exactly what I saw, so I'm posting a variety of images, with flash, under white LED, and in red light. I found the red light necessary to get a photo of her glowing; she wouldn't glow if I had the LED light on.

Is this a female glowworm beetle?

Images of this individual: tag all
Glowbug - Pleotomus pallens - female Glowbug - Pleotomus pallens - female Glowbug - Pleotomus pallens - female Glowbug - Pleotomus pallens - female Glowbug - Pleotomus pallens - female
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Contributed by Joe Lapp on 27 June, 2012 - 1:31am
Last updated 18 August, 2016 - 8:51am

coool....
Moved from Fireflies.
… v belov, 18 June, 2013 - 7:11pm login or register to post comments

yes...excellent....this is th
yes...excellent....this is the larviform female of the firefly Pleotomus pallens...pictured in Cicero 1988 Coleopterists Bulletin 42(2):105.
… joeCicero, 18 June, 2013 - 7:10pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from Beetles.
… Brad Barnd, 13 July, 2012 - 2:34am login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
… Joe Lapp, 30 June, 2012 - 5:46pm login or register to post comments

Looks more like a Lampyrid to me...
Larva or maybe adult female?

But what do I know? Hold on to hear from someone with actual exptertise. :)
… Ken Wolgemuth, 27 June, 2012 - 4:31pm login or register to post comments

 
Firefly
Eric Eaton says it's an adult female firefly of some sort. I'm not sure where I should file it though, in case someone has a genus or a species determination.
… Joe Lapp, 27 June, 2012 - 4:40pm login or register to post comments

 
I'd move 'em to family.
Anyone with the expertise needed to take the ID further will be more likely to be looking around there than in ID Request.
… Ken Wolgemuth, 27 June, 2012 - 4:43pm login or register to post comments

 
..
Yes. I know that with the spiders, we leave it at the order level until we've made the best det possible. It then gets filed according to that det. If beetles worked the same way, I'd be moving this to Coleoptera rather than to the firefly family, and it would only get moved to the firefly family directly if genus could not be readily determined.
… Joe Lapp, 27 June, 2012 - 4:47pm login or register to post comments

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