First ?Pteroptyx bearni larvae in Sarawak Found

?P. bearni top view. (Photograph by Daniel Kong)

During our overnite stay at Similajau National Park for Waterbirds and Wetland Habitats Survey of the Sarawak Coast, we discovered something special. On the night of the 13th Jan 2011, Daniel Kong and I went out to Likau river bank along the educational track to check things out. We were specifically out there that nite to go look for fireflies larvae.


The 3 ?P. bearni Larvae (Photograph by Daniel Kong)

We didn't spot aby larvae along the wooden plank, so we went down to the ground on all fours crawling without any lights. As we entered the trail, about 5 meter along the track, we saw the first flashing a firefly larvae. I moved in closely and switched on my head light when I got close to our quarry. I was expecting a large larva, what was flashing instead was a larva so small it didn't even reach 5 mm in length. We secured the larvae in a plastic vial, Daniel found two more.


?P. bearni 6 mm long side view. (Photograph by Daniel Kong)


?P. bearni View from below (Photograph by Daniel Kong)

After safely securing 3 larvae, we concluded our foray. By then the wind was blowing hard and rain had started to fall. We decided to return to base.

At the hostel Daniel had lots of fun making macro photographs of the newly acquired larvae.

The larvae are presumably of the ?Pteroptyx bearni (E.Cordier 1808), this was surmised from the fact that a firefly sampled along this river was identified previously as P. bearni adult.

We are presently reconfirming the identity of this special little creature ... WATCH THIS SPACE!

Article by Musa Musbah (edited by Nazeri Abghani)
Images by Daniel Kong