| 1. Name:
2. Address: 3. Tel/Fax/email 4. Dates of sighting 5. Time observed: 6. Area/Place seen (town, road km, place) 7. How many seen? 8. Synchronous flashing/ non-synchronous group/ individuals* 8a. Male/female |
9. Colour of Light
10. Seen near river/ stream/ in the water/ mangrove trees/ orchards/ plantation/ lake/ garden/ roadside/ etc 11. Spotted any in the daytime? Where (on tree/ grass etc) 12. Any other organism seen that glows and flashes in the water/ground?** 13. Additional info: 14. Photo/ sketch of fireflies |
How to observe a firefly?
The firefly is a fascinating creature.
Some of you when you are young may have caught them and put them in bottles
and watch them flash about in the dark. You will need a butterfly net or
you can make them out of old curtain nets on a hoop of bamboo and a pole,
bottle or a small collection tank and a ruler. The fireflies are fragile
and quite soft. You have to be gentle to handle them. You can also use
both hands to cup the fireflies, careful not to squash them. Take along
a small torchlight and do not shine on the fireflies as they do not like
it. The torch is for you to identify the sex or do a sketch of them. Shine
from underneath the firefly in the tank and observe the lamps.
The male firefly has 2 lamps segment
(whitish) and the female have only 1 lamp. There may be cases of flightless
female fireflies on the ground. They have 6 long legs or 6 short ones,
slender, segmented, a sucker at the end or none, one lamp segment or lights
along the body. It will look like the tiny larva which is around 0.6cm.
These females are big around 3-6cm. Note down the colour of both male and
female. Note the antennae-brush or in segment? Draw the firefly and note
down the colour, sex, size, antennae or take a macro photo of them from
the top and below.
Please release all the fireflies after
you have done the observation. They are very sensitive and fragile, have
short adult life, die after mating and, in order for them to continue with
another generation of fireflies, please set them free for others to enjoy.
(Sonny/Melissa/Stella)