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Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth transformation or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some insects, jellyfish, fish, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, cnidarians, echinoderms, and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, which is often accompanied by a change of nutrition source or behavior. Animals can be divided into species that undergo complete metamorphosis ("holometaboly"), incomplete metamorphosis ("hemimetaboly"), or no metamorphosis ("ametaboly").
The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production of light, mainly during twilight, to attract mates. Light production in the Lampyridae is thought to have originated as an honest warning signal that the larvae were distasteful; this was co-opted as a mating signal in the adults. In a further development, female fireflies of the genus Photuris mimic the flash pattern of Photinus species to trap their males as prey.
A pupa is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages thereof being egg, larva, pupa, and imago. The processes of entering and completing the pupal stage are controlled by the insect's hormones, especially juvenile hormone, prothoracicotropic hormone, and ecdysone. The act of becoming a pupa is called pupation, and the act of emerging from the pupal case is called eclosion or emergence.
The beetle family Phengodidae is known also as glowworm beetles, whose larvae are known as glowworms. The females and larvae have bioluminescent organs. They occur throughout the New World from extreme southern Canada to Chile. The recently recognized members of the Phengodidae, the Cydistinae, are found in Western Asia. The family Rhagophthalmidae, an Old World group, used to be included in the Phengodidae.
Glowworm or glow-worm is the common name for various groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females that glow through bioluminescence. They include the European common glow-worm and other members of the Lampyridae, but bioluminescence also occurs in the families Elateridae, Phengodidae and Rhagophthalmidae among beetles; as well as members of the genera Arachnocampa, Keroplatus and Orfelia among keroplatid fungus gnats.
Holometabolism, also called complete metamorphosis, is a form of insect development which includes four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and imago. Holometabolism is a synapomorphic trait of all insects in the superorder Holometabola. Immature stages of holometabolous insects are very different from the mature stage. In some species the holometabolous life cycle prevents larvae from competing with adults because they inhabit different ecological niches. The morphology and behavior of each stage are adapted for different activities. For example, larval traits maximize feeding, growth, and development, while adult traits enable dispersal, mating, and egg laying. Some species of holometabolous insects protect and feed their offspring. Other insect developmental strategies include ametabolism and hemimetabolism.
The Elateroidea are a large superfamily of beetles. It contains the familiar click beetles, fireflies, and soldier beetles and their relatives. It consists of about 25,000 species.
The Rhagophthalmidae are a family of beetles within the superfamily Elateroidea. Members of this beetle family have bioluminescent organs on the larvae, and sometimes adults, and are closely related to the Phengodidae, though historically they have been often treated as a subfamily of Lampyridae, or as related to that family. Some recent evidence suggested that they were the sister group to the Phengodidae, and somewhat distantly related to Lampyridae, whose sister taxon was Cantharidae, but more reliable genome-based phylogenetics placed as the sister group to the Lampyridae.
Lampyris noctiluca, the common glow-worm of Europe, is the type species of beetle in the genus Lampyris and the family Lampyridae.
Xenos vesparum is a parasitic insect species of the order Strepsiptera that are endoparasites of paper wasps in the genus Polistes that was first described in 1793. Like other members of this family, X. vesparum displays a peculiar lifestyle, and demonstrates extensive sexual dimorphism.
Photinus pyralis, known by the common names common eastern firefly and big dipper firefly, is the most common species of firefly in North America. P. pyralis is a flying and light-producing beetle with a light organ on the ventral side of its abdomen. This organism is sometimes incorrectly classified as Photuris pyralis, which likely results from mistaking the similar-sounding genus Photuris.
Nipponoluciola cruciata, known as "genji-botaru" (ゲンジボタル) in Japanese, is a species of firefly found in Japan. Its habitat is small ditches and streams, and its larvae are aquatic. It was formerly known as Luciola cruciata but was revised taxonomically in 2022.
Aquatica ficta is a species of firefly found in Taiwan and parts of China. It was formerly placed in the genus Luciola. Its habitat is still water, and the larvae are aquatic.
Aquatica hydrophila is a species of firefly found in Taiwan. Described in 2003, it was formerly placed in the genus Luciola. The larvae are aquatic and live in ditches and small streams.
Luciola substriata is a species of firefly found in India, Myanmar, China and Taiwan. The larvae are aquatic and can swim, living in marshes, paddies, lakes and ponds.
Pterotus obscuripennis, commonly known as the Douglas fir glowworm, is a species of firefly in the beetle family Lampyridae. It is found along the western coast of North America, from Washington to California. Adult males are smaller, alate, capable of fight, have an elaborate antenna morphology, and are totally non-luminous. Adult females are larger, fully larviform and flightless, and cream to light golden brown in color, and luminous with photo organs on the seventh and eighth abdominal segment. Larvae are largely black in color, with cream to white coloration in the spaces between the body segments, and are luminous and predatory on slugs.
Phausis inaccensa, also known as the shadow ghost, is a species of firefly in the family of beetles known as Lampyridae. It is found in central and eastern United States. The larviform females of the species are bioluminescent, whereas the males are winged but lanternless.
Oemona hirta, the lemon tree borer, also known as the whistling beetle or the singing beetle, is a longhorn beetle endemic to New Zealand. Its larvae are generalist feeders, boring into the wood of a wide variety of trees, native and introduced. When citrus orchards were first established in New Zealand, this beetle started inflicting serious damage, and so gained the name "lemon tree borer". Four species within the genus Oemona have been identified, suggesting that more species could be found. When disturbed by predators or humans, the adult beetle stridulates creating a "rasp" or "squeak" sound by rubbing its thorax and head together against an area of thin ridges. Māori would eat a liquid called "pia manuka", which was produced by manuka trees when its wood was damaged by the larvae. When Captain Cook first arrived in NZ, his naturalists, Banks and Solander, collected a lemon tree borer in their first collection between 1769 and 1771. This oldest collected specimen can be found in the British Museum. A few years after the first collection, the species would be first described by the Danish naturalist Fabricius in 1775.
Abscondita chinensis, is a species of firefly beetle found in India, China and Sri Lanka.
Pteroptyx is a genus of fireflies in the subfamily Luciolinae found in Southeast Asia. It has long been noted for the ability to perform synchronous flashing, though not all species synchronize. These synchronizing species have been found on so-called 'firefly trees' and created a growing firefly-watching tour industry in some regions. Species of the genus have been identified in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Hong Kong.
References
- 1 2 Cicero, Joseph (June 1988). "Ontophylogenetics of cantharoid larviforms (Coleoptera: Cantharoidea)". The Coleopterists Bulletin. The Coleopterists Society. 42 (2): 105–151. JSTOR 4008535 . Retrieved 1 December 2020.
- ↑ Erezyilmaz, D.F., Hayward, A., Huang, Y., Paps, J., Acs, Z., Delgado, J.A., Collantes, F., and Kathirithamby, J. (2014) 'Expression of the pupal determinant broad during metamorphic and neotenic development of the strepsipteran Xenos vesparum Rossi', PLoS ONE, 9(4), available: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A375582897/HRCA?u=crepuq_bishop&sid=HRCA&xid=8b5d44a4 [accessed 30 Nov 2020].
- 1 2 McMahon, Dino P.; Hayward, Alexander (April 2016). "Why grow up? A perspective on insect strategies to avoid metamorphosis". Ecological Entomology. 41 (5): 505–515. Bibcode:2016EcoEn..41..505M. doi: 10.1111/een.12313 . S2CID 86908583.
reproductive maturity is differentiated by the development of sexual traits (i.e. the development of the germ line and genitalia) without progression to a discrete pupal stage or a metamorphic terminal imago.
- ↑ Da Silveira, Luiz Felipe Lima; Mermudes, José Ricardo M. (2014-02-18). "Systematic review of the firefly genus Amydetes Illiger, 1807 (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), with description of 13 new species". Zootaxa. 3765 (3): 201–248. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3765.3.1. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 24870897.
