The Straits Times You could be stepping on an endangered species : Why hikers need to be careful in S pore s forests
National Parks Board National Biodiversity Centre deputy director Lua Hock Keong looks for the two rare orchids at Clementi Forest, during an NParks salvaging trip on April 28, 2021.ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
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Researchers have discovered a new species of firefly in Singapore’s last remaining freshwater swamp forest.
It’s the first time since 1909 that anyone has discovered a new species of luminous firefly in the city-state.
The research on the newly identified Singapore firefly (
Luciola singapura) appears in the journal
“When we first encountered this species, we knew it was interesting because the specimens were collected from a freshwater swamp forest in the central catchment area of Singapore fireflies are rarely reported from this type of habitat. Furthermore, it did not fit the descriptions of any known firefly species to date,” says lead author Wan Faridah Akmal Jusoh, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM).
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On March 4, 2021, a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and National Parks Board (NParks) published a paper detailing the discovery of Luciola singapura – the scientific name given to the new species discovered in Singapore s Nee Soon swamplands.
The paper stated that in 2009, a nationwide survey of Singapore s firefly population documented 11 different species, including one unidentified species that did not fit in with the descriptions of any known species of firefly at the time.
As they examined the specimens of the unidentified species at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM), the researchers noticed that they were morphologically similar (almost identical in biological structure) to specimens of an unidentified species collected in the same area between 1989 to 1990 – more than 30 y