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The Male
On page 24 of the publication “The Waitomo Caves”, by J. H. Richards, is a remarkable flashlight photograph of the adult male Bolitophila, taken by Mr. E. P. Christensen. One male was found at Waitomo by the writer. The end of its body was snipped off and fixed, and sectioned. On Pl. 27, Fig. 11, is an oblique longitudinal section of its body showing the luminescent organs (lo) These are much shrunken, not due to bad fixation or to poor technique, because the more delicate parts close by are well shown; neighbouring luminescent cells have here and there become confluent (LOD) and their nuclei tend to lie together. The malpighian tubule connectives are present as usual, but are shrunken. This would appear to support the findings of those naturalists who have stated that the male is not
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luminescent. The fact that the female is known to be luminescent points to the view that this is connected with sexual attraction by the female. But no evidence for this has been forthcoming. Hudson mentions that one of his female specimens was taken to the Botanical Gardens at Wellington, where it lighted up, but after 45 minutes had not attracted a male. Perhaps the trial was not long enough. According to Mr. Sear, the female pairs at, or soon after emergence, and one of Hudson's specimens lighted up for two days. The pupae which were luminescent, not always, but from time to time, were probably females. It should be mentioned that the writer and his assistants, who spent many hours examining banks at night, never found a pupa. Since it was understood that pupae lighted up faintly, special care was taken to find such examples, without success.
In the photograph on Pl. 27, Fig. 11, the sacs (rc) are the vesiculae seminales, and those marked (ac) probably accessory organs. The organ (te) is one of the testes, seen to be passing down to (rc), the vesiculae.*
On Pl. 26, Fig. 8a, is a sketch of the posterior end of the body of a dead adult found at Waipu. The last segment is clear of pigment, and it is here that the luminescent organ reposes.
[Footnote] * Since this paper went to press the author has received information which doubts the identification of this specimen, and this will need further study.