Lampyridae

Cyphonocerus ruficollis, copyright Ishikawa Ken.

Belongs within: Elateroidea.
Contains: Lampyrinae.

The Lampyridae, fireflies, are a group of soft-bodied beetles with luminous organs on the underside of the abdomen. Adult males fly shortly after dusk and flash the light organs to attract mates (Lawrence & Britton 1991).

Characters (from Lawrence & Britton 1991): Elongate, somewhat flattened, soft-bodied; head concealed by explanate pronotum or partly exposed; antennae relatively short, eleven-segmented, filiform; eyes very large in male; mandibles small, curved, falcate, perforate; colour of pronotum primarily yellow, elytra dark brown, usually with basal, lateral and sutural edges yellow; fore coxae projecting, trochantins exposed, fore coxal cavities internally and externally open; mid coxal cavities medially contiguous, laterally open; tarsi pentamerous, fourth tarsal segment bilobed; abdomen with six ventrites, none connate, luminous organs (yellowish white in colour) present on fifth (female) or fifth and sixth (male) ventrites. Larva elongate, tapered at both ends, somewhat flattened, dorsally sclerotised and variously marked, with small, retractable head bearing curved, perforate mandibles, and often with laterally expanded thoracic and abdominal terga; luminous organ on segment 8; segment 9 terminal, 10 reduced and bearing holdfast organ consisting of several eversible, asperate, tubular filaments.

Lampyridae [Lampyrides] B14
    |--Vesta KB11
    `--+--+--Cyphonocerus ruficollis KB11
       |  `--+--Bourgeoisia KB11
       |     `--Curtos KB11
       `--+--Mimophaeopterus KB11
          `--+--Flabellotreta KB11
             `--+--Ototretadrilus KB11
                `--Drilaster KB11

Lampyridae incertae sedis:
  Pyrocoelia L09
    |--P. bicolor (Fabr. 1801) (n. d.) [=Lampyris bicolor, Cratomorphus bicolor] L09
    `--P. rufa H06
  Erythrolychnia GE05
  Bicellonycha GE05
  Robopus Motschulsky 1853 SB07
    `--*R. vittigerus (Gyllenhal in Schönherr 1817) [=Lampyris vittigera, Photinus vittigerus] SB07
  Pleotomus GE05
  Luciola LB91 [incl. Atyphella Olliff 1889 LB91, L09; Luciolinae, Luciolini]
    |--L. australis L09 (see below for synonymy)
    |--‘Atyphella’ brevis Lea 1909 L09
    |--L. cowleyi Blackb. 1897 L09
    |--L. dejeani Gemming 1870 L09 [incl. Lampyris apicalis (preoc.) L09, Colophotia apicalis B35]
    |--‘Atyphella’ flammans Olliff 1889 L09
    |--L. flavicollis Macleay 1872 M86 (see below for synonymy)
    |--L. humilis Olivier 1896 L09
    |--L. italica R13
    |--L. lusitanica RD77
    |--L. lychnus (Olliff 1889) LB91, L09 [=Atyphella lychnus L09]
    |--L. olivieri LB91
    |--L. platygaster Lea 1909 L09
    |--L. pudica Olliff 1889 L09
    |--‘Atyphella’ scintillans Olliff 1889 [incl. Luciola decora Oliv. 1902] L09
    `--L. striata [=Lampyris striata, Colophotia striata] L09
  Pteroptyx cribellata LB91
  Pyrophanes LB91
  Ellychnia Blanchard 1845 SB07
    `--*E. corrusca (Linnaeus 1767) [=Lampyris corrusca, Photinus corruscus] SB07
  Pterotus MW15
  Photuris Dejean 1833 [=Pyrectosoma Motschulsky 1853; Photurinae] B51
    |--*P. versicolor (Fabricius 1798) [=Lampyris versicolor, *Pyrectosoma versicolor] B51
    |    |--P. v. versicolor B51
    |    `--P. v. quadrifulgens Barber 1951 B51
    |--P. aureolucens Barber 1951 B51
    |--P. brunnipennis (see below for synonymy) B51
    |    |--P. b. brunnipennis B51
    |    `--P. b. floridana Barber 1951 B51
    |--P. caerulecens Barber 1951 B51
    |--P. cinctipennis Barber 1951 B51
    |--P. congener LeConte 1852 B51
    |--P. divisa LeConte 1852 B51
    |--P. fairchildi Barber 1951 B51
    |--P. frontalis LeConte 1852 B51
    |--P. greeni RD77
    |--P. hebes Barber 1951 B51
    |--P. hectica B51
    |--P. jamaicensis M51
    |--P. lineaticollis LeConte 1852 [=Telephoroides lineaticollis] B51
    |--P. lucicrescens Barber 1951 B51
    |--‘Lampyris’ marginata Panzer 1789 non Linnaeus 1767 B51
    |--P. pensylvanica (DeGeer 1774) (see below for synonymy) B51
    |--P. potomaca Barber 1951 B51
    |--P. pyralomimus Barber 1951 B51
    |--P. salinus Barber 1951 B51
    |--P. scintillans B51
    `--P. tremulans Barber 1951 B51
  Lampyrinae B14
  Ototretinae KB11
  Lamprophorus tardus RD77
  Lucidota B51
    `--‘Pyractonema’ (l. c. for Pyractomena) compressicorne Solier in Gay 1849 B51
  Lecontea Olivier 1899 B51
    `--*L. borealis [=Lampyris borealis, Pyractomena borealis] B51

Luciola australis L09 [=Lampyris australis L09, Colophotia australis B35; incl. Luciola guerini L09, Lu. nigripennis (n. n.) L09]

Luciola flavicollis Macleay 1872 M86 [incl. L. coarcticollis Oliv. 1888 L09, L. flavicollis var. gestroi Olivier 1885 L09]

Photuris brunnipennis [incl. P. brunnipennis var. falli Barber 1951, P. flavicollis Fall 1927 non Olivier 1886] B51

Photuris pensylvanica (DeGeer 1774) [=Lampyris pensylvanica, Telephoroides pensylvanica; incl. T. vittigera Motschulsky 1854] B51

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B51] Barber, H. S. 1951. North American fireflies of the genus Photuris. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 117 (1): i–vi, 1–36.

[B35] Boisduval, J. B. 1835. Voyage de Découvertes de l’Astrolabe. Exécuté par ordre du Roi, pendant les années 1826–1827–1828–1829, sous le commandement de M. J. Dumont d'Urville. Faune entomologique de l'océan Pacifique, avec l'illustration des insectes nouveaux recueillis pendant le voyage vol. 2. Coléoptères et autres ordres. J. Tastu: Paris.

[B14] Bouchard, P. (ed.) 2014. The Book of Beetles: A lifesize guide to six hundred of nature's gems. Ivy Press: Lewes (United Kingdom).

[GE05] Grimaldi, D., & M. S. Engel. 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press: New York.

[H06] Hassanin, A. 2006. Phylogeny of Arthropoda inferred from mitochondrial sequences: strategies for limiting the misleading effects of multiple changes in pattern and rates of substitution. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38: 100–116.

[KB11] Kundrata, R., & L. Bocak. 2011. The phylogeny and limits of Elateridae (Insecta, Coleoptera): is there a common tendency of click beetles to soft-bodiedness and neoteny? Zoologica Scripta 40: 364–378.

[LB91] Lawrence, J. F., & E. B. Britton. 1991. Coleoptera (beetles). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers 2^nd ed. vol. 2 pp. 543–683. Melbourne University Press: Carlton (Victoria).

[L09] Lea, A. M. 1909. Revision of the Australian and Tasmanian Malacodermidae. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1909 (1): 45–251, pls 2–6.

[M86] Masters, G. 1886. Catalogue of the described Coleoptera of Australia. Part IV. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (2): 259–380.

[M51] McDermott, F. A. 1951. Notes on some general characters of North American Photuris. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 117 (1): 37–58.

[MW15] McKenna, D. D., A. L. Wild, K. Kanda, C. L. Bellamy, R. G. Beutel, M. S. Caterino, C. W. Farnum, D. C. Hawks, M. A. Ivie, M. L. Jameson, R. A. B. Leschen, A. E. Marvaldi, J. V. McHugh, A. F. Newton, J. A. Robertson, M. K. Thayer, M. F. Whiting, J. F. Lawrence, A. Ślipiński, D. R. Maddison & B. D. Farrell. 2015. The beetle tree of life reveals that Coleoptera survived end-Permian mass extinction to diversify during the Cretaceous terrestrial revolution. Systematic Entomology 40 (4): 835–880.

[R13] Reuter, O. M. 1913. Lebensgewohnheiten und Instinkte der Insekten bis zum Erwachen der sozialen Instinkte. R. Friedländer & Sohn: Berlin.

[RD77] Richards, O. W., & R. G. Davies. 1977. Imms' General Textbook of Entomology 10^th ed. vol. 2. Classification and Biology. Chapman and Hall: London.

[SB07] Svenson, G. J., & M. A. Branham. 2007. Photinini LeConte, 1881 (Insecta, Coleoptera) and Photininae Giglio-Tos, 1915 (Insecta, Mantodea): proposed resolution of homonymy between family-group names. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 64 (4): 243–251.

Last updated: 10 December 2020.