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Friday, October 17, 2014

Lampyrid firefly preying on a giant African snail

Lampyridae firefly (Lamprigera sp. - ID credit: Michael Geiser, Gene Mesher) attacking and later eating a Giant African Snail (Achatina fulica. ID credit: Tan Siong-Kiat, Marcus Ng) that it killed earlier. Selangor, Malaysia.

I first spotted the firefly because of its glow in the dark. You'll see the time stated above each image

8:36pm
Lamprigera sp. preying on Giant African Snail IMG_4376 copy

8:36pm
Lamprigera sp. preying on Giant African Snail IMG_4377 copy

8:36pm. The snail tried to escape!
Lamprigera sp. preying on Giant African Snail IMG_4378 copy

8:37pm
Lamprigera sp. preying on Giant African Snail IMG_4379 copy

8:38pm
Lamprigera sp. preying on Giant African Snail IMG_4382 copy

8:38pm
Lamprigera sp. preying on Giant African Snail IMG_4383 copy

8:39pm I left the scene after this shot.
Lamprigera sp. preying on Giant African Snail IMG_4386 copy

11:42pm. On the way out of the forest park, I tried to look for the Lampyrid and snail again. Took me a few minutes but I finally found them, but I startled the beetle and it stopped eating the snail
Lamprigera sp. preying on Giant African Snail IMG_4421 copy

11:44 pm.
Lamprigera sp. preying on Giant African Snail IMG_4423 copy

11:47pm..i waited..and a few minutes later, the Lampyrid resumed eating its escargot supper.
Lamprigera sp. preying on Giant African Snail IMG_4429 copy

A different individual preying on a different species of snail:

Lamprigera sp._MG_1343 copy
I turned off the flash, relying just on the diffused focusing light, and opened up the aperture (F3.2) and pumped up the ISO to 1000 to get the tail light showing.


   
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