Lampyris noctiluca
Females of the Great firefly
The Great firefly, fireflies or Major or Large Johannisglühwürmchen ( Lampyris noctiluca ) is a beetle of the family Fireflies ( Lampyridae ).
Features
The males have a body length of 10 to 12 mm. Your body is brown, the edges of the rounded front, rear tapered at the corners of the pronotum are yellowish. The head is hidden under the pronotum. The elytra bear three to four longitudinal ribs, its surface is finely roughened and loose, short- hairy. On the seventh sternite is a weak visible light field. They are winged.
The females are 15 to 20 millimeters long. They have a reddish-brown body and are similar in shape to a larva. The edge of the neck flange is also equal to that of the individual body segments and the center line along the abdomen yellowish. A tag ( scutellum ) is not formed. On the sixth and seventh segment are light fields, on the eighth segment fluorescent spots. You are entirely wingless and have no deck stub wings.
The species can be confused with the little fireflies ( Lamprohiza splendidula ). The males of the Great firefly distinguished by a lack of transparent window on the pronotum, the females in the absence of the elytra stub.
Occurrence
The species is widespread in Europe and Asia and occurs in the north to the south of Norway and central Sweden and Finland on. In the south, the spread also includes the Mediterranean. In the British Isles, the species is distributed locally. They inhabited forest edges and meadows, but also gardens and parks, from the lowlands to the mountain foothills. In the Swiss Alps, the species is detected at altitudes of about 1800 meters. The flight time is from June to September.
Way of life
The animals are crepuscular and nocturnal. Males fly around and look for females that make sitting on the ground attention with lights. The males glow compared to them only weakly. The males take no food. The larvae feed on prey on slugs and snails. These are killed by a poison bite.