Luciola japonica ( Thunberg 1784 )

Ho, - Z., 2019, The Luciolinae of S. E. Asia and the Australopacific region: a revisionary checklist (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) including description of three new genera and 13 new species, Zootaxa 4687 (1), pp. 1-174 : 157-158

Luciola japonica ( Thunberg 1784)

Lampyris japonica Thunberg 1784: 79 .

Luciola japonica (Thunberg) . Motschulsky 1854: 48. McDermott 1966: 107 (partim). Kawashima Suzuki et Sâtô 2003: 256. Sâtô 1974: 133.

Type. Female. JAPAN. Upsala University Upsala Sweden .

Other specimen examined. JAPAN. Labelled: 1. Handwritten ‘ Luciola Gorhami Ritsema affinis Gorh’; 2 handwritten ‘ Luciola praeusta’; handwritten ‘Yokohama’; 4. Printed ‘Japan G. Lewis 1910-320’. ( NHML).

Remarks. Kawashima et al. (2003) ably overviewed the confusion relating to the identification and misidentifications of this species and presented a colour picture of the holotype female. Despite the name they considered it was not from Japan and probably had never been. It is impossible to identify the type female as it belongs to a wide range of S. E. Asian species which have a pale yellowish dorsum with black tipped elytra.

The single male from Japan in NHML was not dissected but appears to be an Abscondita sp. and has pale yellow abdominal tergites, and pale yellow ventrites anterior to the LOs. This would suggest Abscondita perplexa . However it presents a second problem. We are assuming that the Thunberg specimen was mislabelled and actually is not from Japan but from some other S. E. Asian country where Thunberg travelled. Short of suggesting that the species once existed in Japan and has since become extinct, the more likely explanation is that these two specimens were actually mislabelled. Japan reveres its firefly population and it is almost impossible to conceive that the species has gone unnoticed there.