Y. HANEDA 363 



Manukwari, Momi, and Walen in West New Guinea. This time the 

 fireflies were different and larger than those seen in Rabaul. They 

 were 7 to 8 mm in length with black wings and they differed in the 

 following respects from the fireflies in Rabaul: (1) The color of the 

 light is bluish in both male and female. (2) The fireflies have a 

 migratory tendency, assembling one by one in a large group, then 

 moving to another tree. Their whereabouts in the daytime is unknown; 

 at any rate they were not on trees. 



I also saw synchronous flashing in Singapore on the Bukit timah 

 Road and in the mangrove zone of Johore Baharu, as well as in Java, 

 in certain rice fields in the Village of Provoringo, but these phe- 

 nomena were on a much smaller scale. 



It is said that on the East coast of the Malay Peninsula fireflies that 

 swarm in the mangrove zone used to be protected, since their light 

 could be used for navigation (Watson). Their scientific name is not 

 yet known, but Dr. R. Takahashi believes it to be the Vesta mene- 

 triesi Motsch. 



Synchronous flashing is seldom seen in the Japanese firefly Lticioki 

 cruciata. At Nagamori Village near Gifu City, Gifu Pref., which is 

 noted as a gathering place, the fireflies swarm on the trees on the 

 river banks and flicker synchronously. However, as the light of Lu- 

 ciola cruciata does not extinguish entirely, the regular wave effect, 

 as seen in the tropical species, is not produced. Instead, the flashing 

 is such that the tree on which they are appears to be "breathing" 

 tranquilly. 



Starworm 



A luminous insect called Urat intan or Urat bintang by Indonesians 

 occurs over all tropical Asia. Urat intan means the diamond worm 

 and Urat bintang the starworm. This animal has a pair of luminous 

 dots on the second and twelfth segments, three luminous dots on 

 each segment from the third to eleventh, and one dot on the last 

 segment. The insect is very beautiful, emitting a bluish green light 

 from each dot. The body is larval in form and wingless, similar to 

 Phengodes or the railroad worm of South America (see Harvey, 

 1952). It is identical with the insect in Sumatra called Api-Api, or 

 "fire." I collected it in North Borneo in March, 1938, and afterwards 



