Friday, July 21, 2017

Pyrophorus noctilucus Adult Emerged!!

My Pyrophorus noctilucus adult has emerged, and while it is tiny for this species, (only 20 mm), it is beautiful!! 😁 It glows very brightly, and the brightness varies depending upon how disturbed it is. While resting, the two spots on the pronotum don't light up at all. However, when it is more active, either while foraging around, or especially when it is held or touched at all, then it really lights up! While the most obvious glowing areas are the two spots on the pronotum that glow a bright green light, there is also a spot on it's abdomen that glows orange light, I think on the ventral side, I've only seen it light up when the beetle is in flight though.

I have moved it to a medium sized plastic container with rotten sawdust and wood chunks as the substrate, with bark pieces for hides. I will be feeding it banana and apple pieces. Hopefully it will live for several months, two more adults are on the way, as my other two large larvae have pupated prematurely as well, would be fantastic if I end up with individuals of both genders!

Here are some pictures of the adult:






This thing has huge beady eyes, so freaking cute, I love it!!! 😍

Here's a video I took of it as well, you can really see it glowing here:


I am thrilled to have an adult of this species in my collection, seeing it glow in person is so amazing, pictures or videos really don't do it justice!! 😃

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed! I will be getting some new beetles soon, so stay tuned for the next post! Anyway, thanks for reading, will see you all soon! 😉
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4 comments:

  1. AlexWJuly 21, 2017 at 10:04 PM

    How it controls the glow intensity makes it ten times better!

    Big eyes are associated with infants and the "cuteness" is suggested to be apparently an evolved child-care instinct. I wonder how we can work around un-cute insects with small eyes, like darkling beetles, with the general entomophobic public.

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    1. Invertebrate DudeJuly 22, 2017 at 1:20 PM

      Yeah, it's really cool!

      Interesting! Well desert Tenebrionids at least are pretty clumsy, often bumbling into each other, some play dead, and they often play tug of war with pieces of food, with the winner taking the whole piece for itself, running away to a corner of the cage to eat in peace. They may not have big eyes, but these are all qualities that could be considered "cute" to the main public, so I would try and point out those quirky behaviors. :)

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    2. AlexWJuly 22, 2017 at 6:48 PM

      Thanks, that's a good idea!

      But people seem to ignore "cute" behavior if an insect is "scary". "Scariness" seems to be influenced by glossiness, size, and legginess of the insect. I don't have access to blue feigners right now, so any ideas?

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    3. Invertebrate DudeJuly 24, 2017 at 12:51 PM

      Just find species that you think will be found as "cute" then. Personally I think a lot of the Eleodes are cute, and people will probably enjoy seeing their "headstanding" behavior. :)

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