Genji Fireflies
Genji fireflies are indigenous to Japan.
They had lived by various streams throughout the country and used to be quite familiar to the Japanese.
Because these fireflies spend the most part of their lives in the water, however, quite a number of places have become uninhabitable for them
due to the water pollution.
Still, Genji fireflies flitting around a riverside in the gathering dusk would be typical fireflies of Japan.
The Life of Genji Fireflies
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Thiaridal Snails
– The Food for Fireflies –Thiaridal snails are freshwater snails living in a river. In Tatsuno, they produce their babies from June to the end of September. A big mother snail could produce 10 to 20 baby snails with the size of 1 millimeter in a night. Thiaridal snails usually eat diatoms attaching to the stones at the bottom of a river. To recreate an inhabitable environment for fireflies, it is the most important thing to make the rivers clean so that more and more diatoms and thiaridal snails could live there.
Thiaridal snails are freshwater snails living in a river. In Tatsuno, they produce their babies from June to the end of September. A big mother snail could produce 10 to 20 baby snails with the size of 1 millimeter in a night. Thiaridal snails usually eat diatoms attaching to the stones at the bottom of a river. To recreate an inhabitable environment for fireflies, it is the most important thing to make the rivers clean so that more and more diatoms and thiaridal snails could
live there.
増える環境づくりが、何よりも大切です。
Let’s Observe!
Let’s protect manners and find fireflies well!
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On Fireflies
Fireflies are insects which belong to the beetle family. There are about 2000 kinds of fireflies in the world, and about 40 kinds of them live in Japan. Most fireflies spend their lives on land and eat a member of the snail family. Larvae of Genji fireflies and Heike fireflies in Japan spend their lives in the water and eat freshwater snails, which makes them quite unique fireflies in the world.
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Genji Fireflies and Heike Fireflies
While Genji firefly larvae grow eating thiaridal snails in a river with the clean water, Heike firefly larvae grow eating such snails as pond snails(Monoara-gai) or mud snails (Hime-tanishi) in ponds or rice fields. They are rather resistant to water pollution. To tell the difference between Genji fireflies and Heike fireflies, it is useful to remember that a Genji firefly larva has a mark like a cross(+) on its back while a Heike firefly larva has a mark like a vertical line.
Do not catch fireflies and kawaninas!
In Tatsuno town, fireflies and kawaninas should not be caught by the ordinance.
