Firefly

Aspisoma cf. ignitum

Description:

This looks like the cockroaches from the family blaberidae. This is a small one that measured just an inch long.

Habitat:

Tropical dry forest in NW Costa Rica 4 months into the 6 month rainy season.

1 Species ID Suggestions

bayucca 9 years ago

Firefly

Aspisoma cf. ignitum Aspisoma ignitum (Linnaeus) - Aspisoma ignitum - BugGuide.Net

9 Comments

LeiZhao 9 years ago

I regret I didn't taken a picture of the specimen! My housemates were so freaked out because they thought it was a roach that I had to move it quickly. If I see another one of this size, I'll be sure to snap a photo to verify. I did see a smaller specimen of this type, about .5" last night.

LarryGraziano 9 years ago

Hi Lei, Wow! A four inch speciman. I read the article and it refers correctly to the aspisoma ignitum as having up to 15 mm length. Playa Guiones is close to where I live. The are generally in the same climate zone safe a few more inches of rain a year. However, there elevation and proximity to the ocean is exactly the same. I think it is possible that you have seen a blaberus sp cockroach. There are many examples on noah. Here is one of mine...http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/8546596

LeiZhao 9 years ago

Hey guys, I just saw a mature adult specimen of this species the other night in Playa Guiones. The specimen had to be at least 4 inches in length! We all freaked out because of the resemblance to a cockroach. After I let it out of the house, it flew around a bit in the yard, but I didn't observe any flashes of light. The coloring was unmistakable though. Here is a link to an academic article about the species that was published in 1986 by some researchers based in Puerto Rico: http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/...