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Effect of rainfall on the long‐term population dynamics of the aquatic firefly Luciola cruciata
Author(s) -
YUMA Masahide
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
entomological science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1479-8298
pISSN - 1343-8786
DOI - 10.1111/j.1479-8298.2007.00219.x
Subject(s) - lampyridae , biology , firefly protocol , foraging , population , instar , ecology , zoology , larva , demography , sociology
Long‐term observations of adult populations of the aquatic Genji firefly, Luciola cruciata (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), were conducted using a simple flash counting method from 1975 to 2006 at four locations in Kyoto City, Japan. The relative population sizes of adult L. cruciata at these sites fluctuated almost synchronously, indicating the influence of large‐scale environmental phenomena such as weather conditions on population dynamics. Rainfall in September and the latter half of July caused a significant decrease in the population size. The frequent rainfall during these months may have caused considerable drift in the emergence of early instars of firefly larvae and a decrease in their foraging activity.