Life cycle and description of the immature stages of a terrestrial firefly endemic to Mexico: Photinus extensus Gorham (Coleoptera, Lampyridae)

Abstract

The life cycle, morphology, and bionomy of Photinus extensus Gorham, 1881, an endemic species of Mexico, are described. Redescriptions of adults (male and female) are also presented. Larvae were reared to the adult stage from eggs laid by females collected at the El Pedregal de San Ángel Ecological Reserve, south of Mexico City. The activity period of adults of P. extensus begins at the end of July and finishes by the end of August. Females lay between 3 and 198 eggs. Larvae hatch from the eggs after a period of 11 to 71 days, undergo 6 larval instars and a pupal stage in an annual cycle. Morphological characters of the sixth larval instar of P. extensus are compared with those of several other genera assigned to the tribe Photinini. Knowledge of the natural history of firefly larvae is relevant since most species do not feed as adults and therefore depend on resources acquired during the larval stage.

First Phylogeny of Pseudolychnuris Reveals Its Polyphyly and a Staggering Case of Convergence at the Andean Paramos (Lampyridae: Lampyrini)

“…A rather uncommon phenomenon among diurnal Photinini, female brachyptery was previously reported only for Pyropyga nigricans (Say, 1823) [ 77 ], Lucidota luteicollis (LeConte, 1878) [ 78 ], Phosphaenus Laporte, 1833, and Phosphaenopterus Schaufuss, 1870 [ 79 ]. In contrast, brachyptery is somewhat more common in nocturnal Photinus species, especially at higher-elevation sites (e.g., Photinus extensus Gorham, 1881; [ 80 ]), although not unheard of in lower-elevation species (e.g., P. collustrans LeConte, 1878 and Photinus brimleyi Green, 1956; [ 81 ]). In fact, firefly female brachyptery is widespread in the Andean Paramos, including several Photinus species, particularly those previously listed under its junior synonym Macrolampis Motschulsky, 1853 (e.g., [ 82 ]).…”

𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑠 𝑓𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑖 y 𝑃. 𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑒 nuevas especies de luciérnagas de México (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)

“…Photinus es un género difícil de caracterizar y recientemente los géneros Ellychnia Blanchard, 1845, Macrolampis Motschulsky, 1853 y Paraphotinus Zaragoza, 1995 fueron sinonimizados por Zaragoza-Caballero et al (2023a). Aunque se ha comentado la relevancia de las características de los estados juveniles para reconocer algunos géneros y especies dentro de Photinini, solo se ha descrito el ciclo de vida de P. extensus Gorham, 1881(Archangelsky 2010Zurita-García et al 2022) y tomando en consideración el número de especies, prácticamente los datos sobre larvas y pupas en este género son insuficientes. Por otro lado, la exploración de los genitales de la hembra ha resultado fructífera en el reconocimiento de especies dentro del género Pyropyga Motschulsky, 1852 [Photinini] (Gutiérrez-Carranza et al 2023a); sin embargo, en Photinus se desconoce la hembra en la mayoría de las especies.…”