Pyrophorini (Bioluminescent click beetles), Pyrophorus, Ignelater, Deilelater, etc.

[Hisserdude]

Thought I'd make a thread to show off some of my bioluminescent click beetles, all in the subfamily Pyrophorini. So far I have three of the five US native species (all three collected by @Lucanus95 ), and of course the giant Pyrophorus noctilucus (which are now fairly well established in the US hobby).

First off I'll show off my most recent additions, Ignelater havaniensis, the largest US native Pyrophorini species, large adults can get a little over an inch long. I received adults about a month ago and now have probably 100 larvae, at least! So far they seem just as easy to breed as other members of this subfamily, and I hope to help establish and circulate them in the US hobby! This species, unlike any of the other cultured Pyrophorini, displays noticeable sexual dimorphism as adults, with males being more slender in build with longer antennae, whereas the females have slightly shorter antennae and are broader in shape. Also unlike any of the other US natives, I.havaniensis have pointed extensions to the tips of their elytra, which makes them easy to tell apart from the smaller Deilelater species which might have overlapping ranges with them.

Here's an adult male:

And now an adult female:

And here is an adult male doing his thing, glowing quite brightly from his two pronotum spots!

Here's a tiny L1 larva, click beetles go through many molts, and not even a set number of molts, not like scarabs that only have three instars:

And lastly, here is a size comparison between my largest Pyrophorus noctilucus adult (left) and my largest Ignelater havaniensis adult (right):

 

[Hisserdude]

Here are Pyrophorus noctilucus, one of the largest Pyrophorini and supposedly this species is among the brightest of the bioluminescent insects! Adults are super beefy for Elaterids and put US native Pyrophorini to shame, larvae are huge too and as is normal for this group of click beetles are mostly predatory when immature.

Here are some pictures I've taken of them throughout the years, starting with adults:

Here are some larvae in various stages of development:

And now a pupa:

 

[Hisserdude]

Now we're getting into the smaller species. This is Deilelater physoderus, this species is found in several of the southern states, but this particular stock comes from George West, TX. I only have CB F1 larvae right now, hopefully I'll be seeing adults in a few months. Here are some pictures of the larvae:

And here are some really grainy pics of one larva glowing defensively, they only do so when pretty spooked, and only glow just being their head capsules:

 

[Hisserdude]

Lastly, we have Deilelater cf. atlanticus, one of our smallest US native Pyrophorini, but they still glow brightly nonetheless! These were collected from Ocala FL last year by @Lucanus95 (Alan Jeon), and he sent me 9 CB larvae, which I've been rearing up for months now. One of them just pupated, so I should be seeing an adult in person soon, hopefully I'll be able to breed these easily!

Some pictures of a small larva:

And now here is a pupa, under normal lighting and then in the dark, so you can see it glowing.

And that's it! The last two US natives I have yet to obtain are Vesperelater arizonicus (only found in far southern AZ), and Deilelater ustulatus (only found in FL, uncommonly seen compared to D.atlanticus and D.physoderus). Would love to keep those species as well, so here's hoping I can source some this year.

 

[Vermis]

Nice! I'm impressed that these seemingly mundane beetles glow so strongly. I say seemingly, because our click beetles don't do that, AFAIK.

 

[Hisserdude]

Nice! I'm impressed that these seemingly mundane beetles glow so strongly. I say seemingly, because our click beetles don't do that, AFAIK.

Yeah, the bioluminescent click beetles are all from the tribe Pyrophorini, which are exclusively found in the Americas. While they may look rather unassuming in the daylight, man do they light up at night! (or whenever they are disturbed really). The glow is unbelievably bright on these, so crazy, definitely quite underrated in the hobby IMO.