apple
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Post by apple on Oct 21, 2006 18:06:48 GMT
Hi all Now here, once the rain and thunderstorms are back, it´s time to observe the glowing firefly babies. I once noticed late at night a female glowing surrounded by some glowing eggs. It looked like a small sun surrounded by small and bright stars. What a marvellous thing is Nature!! I did about 4 firefly trips, after the rain starts, and I have seen some beautifull firefly display. One in North Portugal, on a Biologic Park, with glowing larvae of Lampyris ( bright green), Lamprohiza ( these larvae are particularly nice, because have about 20 lights (from 6 to 24, it depends on the individuals), Luciola larvae that glows a bright yellow and that have windows on their back that allow to see their light also from above. They were walking on the ground, on the leaf litter, with rain and about 21 celsius at night. Southwest wind direction. Very dark conditions, under forest canopy. On bamboo forest I saw a particular abundance of delicate Lamprohiza. Other in Ericeira, with 4 diferent species larvae, with a particular big number of Luciola. They were glowing from 19.40 pm until 7 am. Big numbers on dark places. On very light polluted places low number of glowing behaviour, so they are more vulnerable there, once the light display in babies is related to an anti-predator strategy, since that predators tend to avoid glowing prey! I took only some, for observations, like glowing behaviour, feeding behaviour, etc... They are growing well! Ps: The big and pink glow worm, was already identified by a belgian biologist it´s a Nyctophilla reichii, and it´s the first time that science see that it exists a confirmation about the female aspect of this specie!
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apple
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Post by apple on Nov 4, 2006 19:01:02 GMT
Here is a blurry picture that I took of a Lamprohiza baby. ( very dificult to take because the conditions were quite dark). He opened only some lights, but he has more lights. These fireflies sometimes show assymetrical display, showing some lights and not the others. And it varies also in intensity. you may click to enlarge it.
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Post by grant2006 on Nov 4, 2006 19:23:30 GMT
where the pic
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apple
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Post by apple on Nov 4, 2006 19:25:11 GMT
You can´t see the picture?
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Post by grant2006 on Nov 4, 2006 19:26:51 GMT
no picture
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apple
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Post by apple on Nov 4, 2006 19:49:07 GMT
Someone told me that can see it lol.... I´m confused now. Well, i´ll put here another, this time, with 2 babies. The one below only put the lights of one side on, this is an assymetrical display behaviour. you may click to enlarge it
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apple
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Post by apple on Nov 5, 2006 21:23:39 GMT
click on the picture to enlarge it. I took these pictures recently. It´s a larva of Lampyris sp! Later I´ll post here pictures of Lampyris raymondi. ;D
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apple
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Post by apple on Nov 7, 2006 12:17:19 GMT
Those pictures of glowing larvae of Lamprohiza that I took ( don´t know which specie is,can be either paulinoi, mulsanti, splendidula or an unknown type...) are the only ones that I ever saw. The glowing behaviour on larvae I guess that was never photographed on this specie. Adults glow in a diferent way with a bit more located light organs. About other specie: Lampyris noctiluca is also found in many parts of Europe, including Asia, they live in a lot of diferent biotopes, from Iberian peninsula on the West until China in the East. In UK exists a survey about them. They are particularly abundant in chalky soils. In Gloucestershire there are big colonies of them. Here where I live (Lisbon) they are abundant most near aquatic places. Phosphaenus hemipterus is also found in many parts of Europe. It can be found from Iberia Peninsula until Russia. It´s a specie that´s described on Red Book of Endangered species in UK, being only seen very few times, in Hampshire and Sussex. It´s known as the lesser glow worm. The last time that was seen in Uk was in 1995. Here where I live they are found in the North. The last report is from 2005. The rest of the species differ because of the diferent position of countries. ;D I would like to report a finding that I had last night, at around midnight,when I was walking with my dogs, with wet conditions of glowing earthworms on the forest. They were glowing on the bare soil, in dark conditions but with some influence of street lights. I was able to see them glowing anyway. It was funny, because I was thinking firstly that they were glow worms, but after a torch light look I could seetheir slender shape ! I thought what a glow worm would think when he try to eat a earthworm and suddenly she glows loool. Maybe that he was trying to eat a mate by mistake lool. The glow seemed to me to be a defensive strategy, being visible mostly when I touched them. The glow is slow not in flashes, and can be intense sometimes. Is the second time that I see them. The last time was about 9 years ago!!
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apple
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Post by apple on Nov 13, 2006 18:41:56 GMT
I saw this video on the web, and remembered me a bit about the April, May, but specially end of May and early June and they start to finish it in july nights with Luciola lusitanica shining on the fields! ;D The difference is that Luciola flash continuosly and these ones ( I would guess they are Photinus pyralis) flash but then turn off the light, opening it later. The music could be better ;D: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OJpcBGPSEs
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Post by apple on Nov 17, 2006 18:26:46 GMT
I would like to report some findings that I had last night, all located in the cloudy moutain forest on a moutain that local people here call Moon mountain:
Glowing centipede (scolopendra sp), I saw her because I saw a light moving on the ground and I used the torch light to see it. I got quite surprised never saw like that before. But I read about it on bioluminescent articles. Glowing earthworms- much more numerous than here. Glowing mushroom- I was quite pleased to see this nature treasure, I only saw like that before on web pictures about the subject. He glew a faint white light as well as the decaying leave on which he was growing. Glowing beetles more known as fireflies - They were abundant. I saw some eating Oxychillus like snails. It was a great experience and I came here to share with you all. How many more treasures Nature is hiding?
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Post by apple on Nov 28, 2006 21:20:31 GMT
Some photos of the firefly trip done in the end of June and on the beginning of July: I went there with my girlfriend, Susana and a belgian friend ( he took all these good photos, except , Peneda-Geres, called Raphael de Cock). First destiny: Arrabida mountain natural park. Altitude of the camping place: around 300 meters above sea level. Kind of habitat on the studied place: Mediterranean Scrubland ( Maquis & Garrigue), Mediterranean Primitive Forest, Pine Forest, Sandy and Rocky beaches. One of the last primitive Mediterranean forests ( or the last of it´s type?). Some parcells have the same aspect and flora composition since the Tertiary period. We came here to search for the glowing display of 6 diferent species. This place is about 30 km from Lisbon. This picture was taken quite close to the camping place, you can click to enlarge it: Other pictures from Arrabida: www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...=519061&page=5www.geocaching.com/seek/cache...b-1259e57067e6www.flickr.com/photos/21446942@N00media.photobucket.com/image/s...osto2007-4.jpg
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Post by apple on Nov 28, 2006 21:32:28 GMT
You can see the camping place far right, under the trees:
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Post by apple on Nov 28, 2006 21:48:21 GMT
picture taken on a higher place on the mountain( those yellow clearings down on the valley, are the ones that we saw on the previous picture).
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apple
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Post by apple on Dec 1, 2006 1:51:06 GMT
On the other side of the mountain this:
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Post by apple on Dec 1, 2006 2:04:00 GMT
Firefly trip. Second camping place: Mamede mountain. It´s quite near Spain and it´s an «oasis» on the middle of a dry land with some water resources even on summer. Flora: Pinewood and mediterranean scrubland ( already changed by man, not primitive). Altitude of the camping place: around 850 meter above sea level. I would like to say that this place showed the biggest star display at night that I ever saw, maybe due to the very low light emissions from the nearest villages. We went here mostly to search for a very special and rare specie of firefly, but without sucess this time, but we found some different species instead and nice landscapes.
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Post by apple on Dec 1, 2006 2:09:37 GMT
Water freshness showing off on a hot day:
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Post by apple on Dec 1, 2006 2:17:06 GMT
Dragonfly:
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Kevin
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Post by Kevin on Dec 1, 2006 11:26:15 GMT
great pictures, all those places look really nice
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Post by apple on Dec 1, 2006 22:49:45 GMT
Thanks Kevin for the feedback. Mamede mountain:
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Post by copigeon on Dec 1, 2006 22:51:36 GMT
Incredible pictures apple, especially like that pool/oasis shot. Quite a journey there
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Post by apple on Dec 1, 2006 23:04:39 GMT
Another dragonfly:
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Post by missbehave on Dec 1, 2006 23:10:08 GMT
Wow awesome photos Thanks for sharing them with us
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Post by apple on Dec 1, 2006 23:51:18 GMT
Incredible pictures apple, especially like that pool/oasis shot. Quite a journey there Thanks Emma Yes, it was a big journey. We stayed for about only 2 days and an half but in 5 diferent locations. I just would like to stay for a bit more time in each place! Then (after Mamede) we went to a place that´s called Estrela Mountain ( in english is Star Mountain) it´s the second highest mountain here and it´s a natural park. We went first to a mountain valley, but we had a bad surprise when we saw all that forest burned... kms and kms on the road and we only could see burned trees. We went specifically to a place to make a research about a primitive forest. The forest was quite reduced, only some parcells of it were growing near the river. Altitude- around 1000 meters above sea level. Vegetation- Pine forest ( changed by man), old forest ( mountain forest, very few parcells). This picture was taken down on the valley, near the river and the forest. You can see that some houses are made of stone, keeping traditional aspect.On the fields next to it´s growing wine tree, olive tree,fruit trees, vegetables... It´s the way that people find to have some fresh and biologic vegis and fruits to eat, and this are all for free. ;D. On this village there´s water everywhere, once per day the footpaths turn into small waterfalls, because the water is rised from the ground to clean the footpaths. Ancient,effective and ecologic way to wash away all the mess. We found this nice spider:
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Post by apple on Dec 2, 2006 0:05:10 GMT
Wow awesome photos Thanks for sharing them with us Thanks House traditional style: But more traditional is Piodão ( but unfortunately didn´t went there): ligiasilva.no.sapo.pt/Portugal.htmOr Aldeia da Pena ( lost in time): www.photoforum.ru/photo/356698/index.en.htmlNow back to your pictures and trip,here you can see 3 different landscapes: Down: river and forest. Upper/right: village. And on the top burned forest. The river saved the village from being burned, because the fire reached the river valley but couldn´t pass to the other side of the river. Then we saw some fireflies. One of them was this one:
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Post by apple on Dec 2, 2006 0:19:24 GMT
River and surroundings:
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