📸 PhotoPhoto: yellow_bird_woodstock さん https://www.flickr.com/photos/yellow_bird_woodstock/ · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Heike firefly
Aquatica lateralis (Heike firefly · ヘイケボタル)
Not Evaluated (NE) on the IUCN Red List yet.
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 The idiom Hyeongseoljigong, meaning success achieved through hard study, comes from the old tale of reading by the light of fireflies and snow (Korea Heritage Service).
- 💡 Its maximum body length of 10 mm is slightly over half the diameter of a Korean 10-won coin (18 mm) (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Heike firefly is a small firefly that glows from the tip of its abdomen on summer nights, and its larvae grow in clear water by feeding on freshwater snails such as Semisulcospira libertina.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its body length is 7–10 mm, with a black body and a red pronotum marked by a black central stripe. Its yellowish-white light organ is located on the 5th–6th abdominal segments in males and on the 5th segment in females.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It is commonly seen from mid-June to mid-July, using its light as a mating signal. Females lay eggs in waterside moss, and larvae prey on pond snails and Semisulcospira libertina underwater, molting four times before overwintering and pupating in May of the following year.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
The fireflies and their prey habitat around Seolcheon-myeon, Muju, Jeollabuk-do are protected as a Natural Monument (Korea) (No. 322). The Korea Heritage Service explains that habitat destruction from pollution across the country has now placed them at risk of extinction.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List: not evaluated (NE) — cross-checked with the Wikidata conservation-status entry
- • catalogueoflife.org — FZKN
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000017796 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000017796
- • wikidata.org — Q133696464
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Japanese Firefly ヘイケボタル Luciola lateralis.jpg
- • genebank.rda.go.kr — cyberView.bo
- • heritage.go.kr — cul 1363503220000.html
- • koreascience.or.kr — JAKO200111921162935.page
- • bok.or.kr — contents.do
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Kanchi Nanjo · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Pyrocoelia discicollis)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.