Diversity of bioluminescent beetles in Brazilian savanna has declined sharply in 30 years, finds study (phys.org)

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At night in the Cerrado, Brazil's savanna and second-largest biome, larvae of the click beetle Pyrearinus termitilluminans, which live in termite mounds, display green lanterns to capture prey attracted by the bright light.

In more than 30 years of expeditions with his students to Emas National Park and farms around the conservation unit in Goiás state to collect specimens, the phenomenon has never been so rare, said Vadim Viviani, a professor at the Federal University of São Carlos's Science and Technology for Sustainability Center (CCTS-UFSCar) in Sorocaba, São Paulo state.

"In the 1990s, we would see many of these termite mounds full of fireflies and other bioluminescent insects, even in pasture areas. Now, sugarcane is grown in most of the areas, and we hardly see any," he noted.

The dearth was one of the main findings of a study published in Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

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Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.

Over generations, all of the species that are currently alive today have evolved unique traits that make them distinct from other species. These differences are what scientists use to tell one species from another. Organisms that have evolved to be so different from one another that they can no longer reproduce with each other are considered different species. All organisms that can reproduce with each other fall into one species. Read more...

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