Aquatica ficta
species of insect
Aquatica ficta is a species of firefly found in Taiwan and parts of China. It was formerly placed in the genus Luciola. Its habitat is still water, and the larvae are aquatic.
Taxonomy
The species was described as Luciola ficta by Ernest Olivier in 1909. The type locality is Pin-fa, Guizhou. In 2010, Fu, Ballantyne and Lambkin transferred it and three other Luciola species to the new genus Aquatica.
Description
A. ficta has an elongate-oval body that is 7–11 mm (0.28–0.43 in) long and 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) wide. The male and female have the same colouration. The pronotum is orange, and the elytra are dark brown, with yellowish brown fringes. The legs have yellowish brown femora.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Aquatica ficta” as species of insect. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of insect. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3496320. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1909 and 2010.
A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Aquatica ficta” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.