Cratomorphus Motschulsky 1853

Silveira, Luiz F L, Khattar, Gabriel, Vaz, Stephanie, Wilson, Vinicius A., Souto, Paula M., Mermudes, José R. M., Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F., Macedo, Margarete V. & Monteiro, Ricardo F., 2020, Natural history of the fireflies of the Serra dos Órgãos mountain range (Brazil: Rio de Janeiro) - one of the ‘ hottest’ firefly spots on Earth, with a key to genera (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), Journal of Natural History 54 (5 - 6), pp. 275-308 : 292

Cratomorphus Motschulsky 1853 ( Figure 4 D – G )

Most Cratomorphus are big fireflies (~ 4-7 cm). The genus is characterised by the presence of a pair of vitreous spots close to the anterior margin of the pronotum, with large lanterns on abdominal sterna VI and VII, but never completely covering sterna VI and VII. Zaragoza- Caballero (1996) has recently described many species from Central America and provides important features for distinguishing congeneric species. C. besckei is remarkably different from the other species by having ventral spiracles, and ongoing comparative work ( Silveira et al. 2019) has found that this species has a very distinct male genital morphology and flash pattern, and a distinct female lantern morphology ( Silveira et al. 2019) from other Cratomorphus spp. ( Zaragoza-Caballero 1996; Campos et al. 2018). Males have larger eyes and a more depressed vertex than females, but are otherwise similar, though females are very often physogastric (cf. Cicero 1988), and seldomly fly (LS pers. obs.). Dorsal colour pattern can aid in determining species,but caution should be applied to mimetic forms. Males were usually seen flying very high (> 5 m), and usually above the height of the malaise trap. Even though C. distinctus (Fig. 12) and C. splendidus (Fig. 13) are very similar, they can be readily distinguished by the posterior margin of the pygidium, which is rounded in C. distinctus , while it has projected and acute posterior corners in C. splendidus . Secondary sexual dimorphism in Cratomorphus spp. is manifested mainly at sensory organs and lanterns, which are larger in the males than females (e.g. Campos et al. 2018). Costa et al. (1988) described an unidentified species of Cratomorphus and provided original data on its reproductive biology. While reviewing C. cossyphinus , our group described the immature stages of this species ( Campos et al. 2018).

Figures

Figure 4. Diversity of Lampyrinae fireflies of the Serra dos Órgãos. A – Aspisoma sticticum, B – Aspisoma lineatum, C – Aspisoma pallens, D – Cratomorphus besckei, E – Cratomorphus cossyphinus (modified from Campos et al. 2018), F – Cratomorphus splendidus, G – Cratomorphus distinctus, H – Lucernuta savignii (modified from Silveira et al. 2019), I – Lychnacris flabellata subopaca, J – Phaenolis basalis, K – Luciuranus takiyae (modified from Silveira et al. 2018), L – Luciuranus desideratus (modified from Silveira et al. in 2018), M – Luciuranus josephi (modified from Silveira et al. 2016b), N – Luciuranus jameshooki (modified from Silveira et al. 2016b), O – Lucidota flabellicornis, P – Lucidota tricolor, Q – Photinus infuscatus, R – Photinus laticollis, S – Macrolampis varicollis, T – Photinus succensus, U – Photinus augustalisi, V – Macrolampis frater, W – Photinus nodieri, X – Ybytyramoan praeclarum (modified from Silveira and Mermudes 2014b), Y – Ybytyramoan diasi (modified from Silveira and Mermudes 2014b), Z – Ybytyramoan monteirorum (modified from Silveira and Mermudes 2014b). Scale bar: 2 mm.