Two new species of Rhagophthalmus Motschulsky, R. beigansis Ho sp. nov. and R. giallolateralus Ho sp. nov. collected in a vulnerable environment in two small islets of Matzu Archipelago, Lienchiang County are described and illustrated. This brings the total number of species in this genus to 35, and the number known from small off shore islets and islands to 10. Their importance to the conservation of such small and fragile island habitats is discussed.
Firefly luminescence is an intriguing phenomenon with potential technological applications, whose biochemistry background was only recently established. The physics side of this phenomenon, however, was still unclear, specifically as far as the oxygen supply mechanism for light flashing is concerned. This uncertainty is due to the complex microscopic structure of the tracheal system: without fully knowing its geometry, one cannot reliably test the proposed mechanisms. We solved this problem using synchrotron phase contrast microtomography and transmission x-ray microscopy, finding that the oxygen consumption corresponding to mitochondria functions exceeds the maximum rate of oxygen diffusion from the tracheal system to the photocytes. Furthermore, the flashing mechanism uses a large portion of this maximum rate. Thus, the flashing control requires passivation of the mitochondria functions, e.g., by nitric oxide, and switching of the oxygen supply from them to photoluminescence.
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