364 LUMINOUS ORGANISMS OF FAR EAST 



many of them in Singapore and the Malay Peninsula. The maximum 

 length is 15 mm, and the minimum 3 mm. 



On the night of December 15, 1945, at Jurong Village, Singapore, 

 I was observing this starworm in a glass dish on a table under a 

 rubber tree. Suddenly an insect resembling a firefly came flying down. 

 It was about one-third the size of the starworm and had black wings, 

 feather antennae, and no luminous organ. To my great surprise, it 

 copulated with the starwonn, and I found that the insect was the 

 male of this species and the full-grown starworm the female. The size 

 of the starworm varies. Some are extremely tiny. Therefore the larva, 

 pupa, and adult female of the starworm sometimes cannot be distin- 

 guished. It is not yet known whether the larva of the male or its pupa 

 emits light. 



Through the good offices of Dr. Harvey, a specimen was sent to 

 the late Dr. Barber of the National Museum, Washington, who identi- 

 fied it as Diploclodon Hosseltii. Dr. R. Takahashi observed that star- 

 worms ate millipedes instead of snails. 



Luminous Fungus Gnat 



A most interesting luminous dipteron, belonging to the family 

 Platyuridae, the luminous fungus gnat Ceroplatus occurs in Japan. 



On September 25, 1948, Mr. T. Shimizu observed the luminous 

 larvae of a fungus gnat living in a web on the fungus Poria vaporaria, 

 at Mt. Ryogami in Saitama Pref. The specimens were sent to Dr. T. 

 Esaki (1949) for identification. Larvae hatched from eggs on the way. 

 They were identified as Ceroplotus nipponicus Okada (1938). In 

 September, 1950, Dr. Kato and Mr. Shimizu collected some speci- 

 mens of these insects at the same place. There were two species, one 

 Ceroplotus nipponicus and the other Ceroplatus testaceus Dalman. 

 According to Dr. Kato (1952), these diptera have two kinds of fat 

 tissue, one consisting of pure fat cells and the other luminous fat cells. 

 The luminous fat tissue is found around the digestive organs. He 

 suggested that the occurrence of luminous fat cells in the fungus gnat 

 indicates a close relation between the luminous substance and the 

 fat metabolism. 



One night in June, 1951, on Hachijo Island Mr. Okuyama and I 

 collected luminous larvae of this insect living on a web on the under 



