Firefly
( Fujimi City, Saitama pre. on Jun.30 )
The photograph shows fireflies called Heikebotaru kept in the park of Fujimi City, Saitama prefecture. There are about 40 kinds of fireflies in Japan, and Heikebotaru and Genjibotaru are typical Japanese ones. Both of them emit light at every stage from egg to imago and they stay in the water at the larval stage. Although there are nearly 2000 kinds of lightning bugs in the world, the ones with that nature mentioned above are very rare. They have been loved by the Japanese for more than 1000 years as one of natural objects which add poetic charm to the summer night. However insecticides came to be used in the paddy field after the war which was a fireflys' habitat and they had difficulty breeding due to the lights like streetlights, which resulted in a sharp drop of their number. ( Fireflies shine to communicate each other. )
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