The Lampyrini are a
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...
of
fireflies
The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...
in the large
subfamily Lampyrinae
The Lampyrinae are a large subfamily of fireflies (Lampyridae). The exact delimitation, and the internal systematics, have until recently been a matter of debate; for long this group was used as a " wastebin taxon" to hold any fireflies with insu ...
. The lineage formerly separated as Pleotomini seems to be a specialized offshoot of the Lampyrini not too distant from the
type genus
In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name.
Zoological nomenclature
According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal ...
''
Lampyris
''Lampyris'' is a genus of beetles in the Lampyridae. In most of western Eurasia, they are the predominant members of this family and includes the European common glow-worm, which is the type species. They produce a continuous glow;Stanger-Hall, ...
'' and is therefore included here. This tribe occurs throughout the
Holarctic
The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...
and contains the typical "glowing" or "continuous-light" fireflies from that region. Some otherwise very advanced Lampyrini, like
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
in ''
Paraphausis'' and ''
Pyrocoelia'', have degenerated light-producing organs again and communicate primarily or even exclusively with
pheromone
A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...
s like the ancestors of the fireflies did.
[Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F.; Lloyd, James E. & Hillis, David M. (2007): Phylogeny of North American fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae): Implications for the evolution of light signals. '' Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.'' 45(1): 33-49. ]
PDF fulltext
Systematics
The group has recently been examined using molecular phylogenetics, using fairly comprehensive sampling.
Genera
* ''
Afrodiaphanes''
Geisthardt, 2007 i c g
* ''
Diaphanes''
Motschulsky, 1853 i c g
* ''
Lampyris
''Lampyris'' is a genus of beetles in the Lampyridae. In most of western Eurasia, they are the predominant members of this family and includes the European common glow-worm, which is the type species. They produce a continuous glow;Stanger-Hall, ...
''
Geoffroy, 1762 i c g
* ''
Lychnobius''
Geisthardt, 1983 i c g
* ''
Microlampyris''
Pic, 1956 i c g
* ''
Microphotus''
LeConte, 1866 i c g b
* ''
Nelsonphotus''
Cicero, 2006 i c g b
* ''
Nyctophila''
E. Olivier, 1884 i c g
* ''
Ovalampis''
Fairmaire, 1898 i c g
* ''
Paraphausis''
Green, 1949 i c g b
* ''
Pelania''
Mulsant, 1860 i c g
* ''
Petalacmis''
E. Olivier, 1908 i c g
* ''
Prolutacea''
Cicero, 2006 i c g b
* ''
Pyrocoelia''
Gorham, 1880 i c g
Data sources: i = ITIS,[ c = Catalogue of Life,][ g = GBIF,][ b = Bugguide.net]
References
Lampyridae
Taxa named by Pierre André Latreille
Beetle tribes
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