Abscondita chinensis

Biology: Intermittently glowing larvae, active on the moist soils of the forest, preyed or scavenged on ants and other small insects. Captive larvae fed on fresh-killed ants Polyrhachis vicina Roger (Fig. 13 A), mealworms Tenebrio molitor and cannibalized when food was scarce. The larvae had five instars, and matured in less than 5 months in lab (Table 7) though they had only one generation a year in the wild. Mature larvae constructed pupal cells in soil (Fig. 13 B) with mean pupal period 7.67 ± 1.72 days (n = 15). Pupae were observed (after 3 minutes of dark adaption) to emit a continuous pale luminescent glow from the entire body except for the darkened compound eyes and hind wings (Fig. 14 A, B, C). The bodies of newly-emergent adults were also observed weakly glowing (Fig. 14 D), though this luminescence gradually disappeared after c. 3 hours when sclerotization was complete. Mated females laid eggs (n = 142) individually which matured in 25.55 ± 1.44 days. FIGURE 12. Abs. chinensis fifth instar larva SEM. A, B, C head; D antenna; E apex apical maxillary palpomere; F apex galea and apex maxillary palpomere (to right). (A dorsal, anterior half of head only; B, anterior dorsal surface uppermost; C, D, E, F ventral; C anterior half of head only). Adult mating season ranged from July to August in Mt. Dabie, Hubei Province. In July, first firefly flash was observed 26 min after sunset; first male flew and flashed 29 min after sunset. The flash activity usually lasted 2 hours with peak at about 1.5 hours after sunset. When patrolling, males usually flew about 2 metres high through the forest and displayed relatively prolonged single-pulse intensity-modulated flashes when searching for females (Figs. 15, 16). Under mean temperature 23 ° C and humidity 89 %, flash duration of flying flashing males was 924.39 ± 322.03 ms, interval 2756.54 ± 412.79 ms, and rate 0.28 ± 0.04 (flashes / sec) (n = 19) (Figs. 15, 16). Females, walking along the tips of grass and low vegetation on the forest floor, signalled with rapid single pulse flashes with flash duration 201.02 ± 22.02 ms, flash interval 123.97 ± 16.15 ms and rate 3.17 ± 0.55 (n = 15). The bioluminescence emission of both the sexes is yellow (λmax = 565 nm) (Fig. 17). TABLE 7. Development of larval Abs. chinensis under 25 ° C, photoperiod 12: 12. Instar Number (n) Body length (mm) * Body width (mm) * Head width (mm) * Instar period (d) * 1 st 15 3.08 ± 0.35 0.52 ± 0.06 0.12 ± 0.02 14.3 ± 1.4 2 nd 16 4.29 ± 0.25 0.90 ± 0.05 0.19 ± 0.01 13.2 ± 2.0 3 rd 16 5.80 ± 0.67 1.19 ± 0.13 0.25 ± 0.02 14.3 ± 5.8 4 th 15 8.55 ± 1.03 1.58 ± 0.13 0.37 ± 0.03 14.1 ± 5.4 5 th 13 10.62 ± 1.10 2.31 ± 0.19 0.41 ± 0.03 77.2 ± 41.6 * = (Mean ± SD).