Aquatica lateralis explained

Aquatica lateralis, known as "heike-botaru" (ヘイケボタル) in Japanese, is a species of firefly found in Russia, Japan and Korea. It was formerly placed in the genus Luciola. The larvae are aquatic and live in rice paddies.

The genome of Aquatica lateralis was sequenced in 2018.[1]

Taxonomy

Victor Motschulsky described this species as Luciola lateralis from Dauria, Siberia in 1860.[2] In 2010, Fu, Ballantyne and Lambkin transferred four Luciola species, including lateralis, to the new genus Aquatica.[3] The Japanese name of A. lateralis is "heike-botaru", which may derive from The Tale of Heike, a 14th-century Japanese novel, or the Heike clan, which lost the 12th-century Genpei War.[4] (Another, larger firefly species, Luciola cruciata, has the Japanese common name "genji-botaru", a possible reference to the Genji clan, the winners in the Genpei War).[4]

Description

The male is 6.5mm9.5mm long and 2.3mm3.3mm wide. The female is 7.5mm10.5mm long and 2.5mm3.5mm wide. The body is elongate oval.[5] The pronotum is reddish pink or yellowish, with a central brown band, and the elytra are dark brown. The male has a brown and yellow venter, and that of the female is brown, yellow and reddish pink. The oblong aedeagal sheath, about 2.3mm in length, and the male genitalia, 1.5mm1.7mm long, are asymmetric. The larva is soft, having gills and defensive organs.

Distribution and habitat

A. lateralis is found in eastern Siberia, the Kuril Islands, Japan (including all four main islands) and Korea. Its presence in China is unsubstantiated. Larvae live in rice paddies. Adults are found from April to November; their numbers are greatest from June to August.

Behaviour

The larvae are aquatic, crawling at the bottom of the water.[6] Third and fourth instar larvae overwinter in soils and stubble. In Hokkaido and Korea, individuals often mature in more than one year; on Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku, individuals usually mature in less than one year. The larvae and adults emit yellowish lights, and the dim glow of the eggs and pupae is green.[7] The male emits flashes while searching for the female, whose flashes attract the male to a leaf 5– from it. The male then emits a twinkling flash. Flashing continues, and then they copulate. Green, yellow and red artificial flashes all attract the male. In Hokkaido, there is longer than one second between flashes. In other areas of Japan and in Korea, there is about half a second.[8]

Notes and References

  1. Fallon. Timothy R. Lower. Sarah E. Chang. Ching-Ho. Bessho-Uehara. Manabu. Martin. Gavin J. Bewick. Adam J. Behringer. Megan. Debat. Humberto J. Wong. Isaac. Day. John C. Suvorov. Anton. Silva. Christian J. Stanger-Hall. Kathrin F. Hall. David W. Schmitz. Robert J. Nelson. David R. Lewis. Sara M. Shigenobu. Shuji. Bybee. Seth M. Larracuente. Amanda M. Oba. Yuichi. Weng. Jing-Ke. Firefly genomes illuminate parallel origins of bioluminescence in beetles. eLife. 7. 2018. 2050-084X. 10.7554/eLife.36495. 30324905. 6191289 . free .
  2. Book: Motschulsky. V.. Schrenck. Leopold von. Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande in den Jahren 1854–1856. 1860. 2. 114. Coléoptères de la Sibérie orientale et en particulier des rives de l'Amour. https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33519852. fr. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20180213205008/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33519852. 2018-02-13.
  3. Fu. Xinhua. Ballantyne. Lesley. Lambkin. Christine L.. Aquatica gen. nov. from mainland China with a description of Aquatica Wuhana sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Lampyridae: Luciolinae). Zootaxa. 2010. 2530 . 2530. 1–18. 10.5281/zenodo.196535. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20171222051249/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236878417_Aquatica_Gen_Nov_From_Mainland_China_With_A_Description_Of_Aquatica_Wuhana_Sp_Nov_Coleoptera_Lampyridae_Luciolinae. 2017-12-22.
  4. News: Corkill. Edan. Fireflies set the nights alight. 26 December 2017. The Japan Times. 13 June 2008. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20171228171807/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/06/13/events/events-outside-tokyo/fireflies-set-the-nights-alight/#.WkHh_lWWbX4. 28 December 2017.
  5. Book: Jeng. M. L.. Lai. J.. Yang. P. S.. Jäch. M. A.. Ji. L.. Water Beetles of China. 2003. 3. 539–562. Lampyridae: A synopsis of aquatic fireflies with description of a new species. http://www.zobodat.at/pdf/WB_China_3_0539-0562.pdf. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20171222104830/http://www.zobodat.at/pdf/WB_China_3_0539-0562.pdf. 2017-12-22.
  6. Fu. Xinhua. Ballantyne. Lesley. Lambkin. Christine L.. The external larval morphology of aquatic and terrestrial Luciolinae fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). Zootaxa. 2012. 3405 . 3405. 1–34. 10.5281/zenodo.211302. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20171222051937/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236661387_The_external_larval_morphology_of_aquatic_and_terrestrial_Luciolinae_fireflies_Coleoptera_Lampyridae. 2017-12-22.
  7. Oba. Yuichi. Furuhashi. Mana. Bessho. Manabu. Sagawa. Shingo. Ikeya. Haruyoshi. Inouye. Satoshi. Bioluminescence of a firefly pupa: involvement of a luciferase isotype in the dim glow of pupae and eggs in the Japanese firefly, Luciola lateralis. Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences. 2013. 12. 5. 854–863. 10.1039/C3PP25363E. 23407656 . 20176445 .
  8. Ohba. Nobuyoshi. Flash Communication Systems of Japanese Fireflies. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 2004. 44. 3. 225–233. 10.1093/icb/44.3.225. 21676700 . free.

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