Firefly Larvae From Jakat

After so much of official activities it time for me and family to do some quality time ourselves. My in-law Suria have a piece of about 30km away from Miri, that is South West of Miri. He is a Kedayan and the very good tracker in the Jungle. After breaking fast we quickly go off to his land to chase away wild boar that been entering his farm.

We reached the farm around 8:30 pm and mount up our tent in his farm. While I and his son (Simi 10 years old) were installing the tent he went to the base of the hill to look for a wild boar.

We completed erecting tents and bring in sleeping bag. Suria came back telling us there was wild boar track still very fresh. But have not seen any. “The tapioca have been dug by the wild boar” he said. “Nanti dia” he commented a bit angry because the boar ate his tapioca.

He then bring me to a place he said should have firefly. So three of us went over the other side of the road . This area is not been cleared yet. There is a shallow stream in the jungle. We went in a bush grown up ex tractor road for timber extraction. Then we side wind into a bush in a marked track. In the track we saw many stick insect of different kind. There are also tarantula holes. The place is noisy with cricket and frog calls. We saw many fireflies at a distance in the bush. We cannot catch any due to not bringing the scoop net.

Jakat Specimen, a mature larva of Stenocladius sp

Jakat Specimen, a mature larva of Stenocladius sp

Jakat Specimen, a mature larva of Stenocladius sp

Then I instructed all of us to switch off out head light and stay quite. This action is very dangerous, because this area is always having people hunting in the jungle. For safety precaution we are wearing a reflective jacket. Not long in the dark we saw many firefly larvae. They are blue twinkle on the grown. Most of them are deep in the under growth. We saw one just at hand reach and manage to catch it. This one is totally new to me having soft body. First look it might be a glow worm. But having the Thorax area the 3 pair of leg and the typical head wit small clay suggest it a firefly larvae. There is no container except for the mineral water bottle. Put it safely in a water bottle for photographing and identifying of what species it is. Take the GPS waypoint and time of the larvae capture.

Shime being small is can get into the bush , and caught a mature firefly. It was around 15 mm in size. It was a male firefly. However before we can put it in the bottle, it flew away. We tracked about a kilometer into the track and return to our camp.

Jakat Specimen, a mature larva of Stenocladius sp

Jakat Specimen, a mature larva of Stenocladius sp

Yui Vor's Specimen frfeeding on Earthworm.

The sky was very dark and the heaven above us were full of stars. I have regretted for not bring any camera to capture star trail. Seen some mentor streak through out the night around Perseid constellation at the northern sky at morning hour.

It was so tiring after the fasting and I slept like a rock. Woke up at 4am to have our morning meal for the fasting the next day. We stayed awake to watch the sun rise over the Eastern sky.

Yui Vor's Specimen from Honh Kong.

In the morning Suria and Shimi goes down hill to see if any more visit by the wild boar. The sun is rising fast and it already getting hot. We rush to pack up our tent and go home.

At home I took photographs of the larvae and send to Hong Kong to Yui Vor and to the rest of our Team in the US (Lynn Faust) and Australia (Dr. Leslie Ballantyne) and in KL (Sonny Wong) and Sabah (Dr. Mahadi Dawood) for Identification. Yui Vor is very experience of Identifying firefly larvae and he reared them to be release. Just within minutes Yui Vor send me the Id of the larvae. The species is of a mature larva of Stenocladius sp.