Tatsuno, an ecologically polluted town, defiled Matsuo-kyo Sanctuary for fireflies

Yutaka Iguchi
Laboratory of Biology

Key words: invasive species, native, tourist, income, profit

Tatsuno is now notorious for breeding invasive species (non-native Genji fireflies, Luciola cruciata) in the Matsuo-kyo valley, a famous sanctuary for fireflies.

The Tatsuno town government intentionally introduced non-native fireflies to attract the attention of tourists as well as locals and thereby made native fireflies go extinct there (Iguchi, 2003, 2009; see also Non-native fireflies intentionally introduced into Matsuo-kyo, Tatsuno, Japan: the loss of biodiversity). Nevertheless, the town government has concealed the destruction of ecological systems and has pretended to protect native fireflies for a long time (Iguchi, 2017). This is mainly because the town has gained tourism income through showing a vast number of fireflies.

Fireflies are certainly the most popular insects in Japan (Takada, 2010, 2011), and therefore the town has increased the number of them. It does not matter to the town whether they are native or not. Its tourism strategy is only to make large profits from their popularity.

References

Iguchi, Y. (2003) History of the introduction of the Genji-firefly at Matsuo-kyo, Tatsuno-machi, Nagano prefecture. Zenkoku Hotaru Kenkyukai-shi (Proceedings of the Japan Association for Fireflies Research) 36: 13-14 (in Japanese).

Iguchi, Y. (2009) The ecological impact of an introduced population on a native population in the firefly Luciola cruciata (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). Biodiversity and Conservation, 18: 2119-2126.

Takada, K. (2010) Popularity of different coleopteran groups assessed by Google search volume in Japanese culture - Extraordinary attention of the Japanese to "Hotaru" (lampyrids) and "Kabuto-mushi" (Dynastines) (cultural entomology). Elytra 38: 299-306.

Takada, K. (2011) Popularity of different Lampyrid species in Japanese culture as measured by Google search volume. Insects 2, 336-342.

Fig. 1. This map shows Matsuo-kyo where a large number of non-native fireflies were intentionally introduced by the town government for tourism and thereby native fireflies have gone extinct. The map is shown using the Digital Japan Web System by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan.

日本語要旨

長野県のホタル名所とかつて言われた辰野町松尾峡は，今では，侵略的外来種としてのホタル大規模養殖地である。これまで，そこに放流された観光目的の外来種ゲンジボタルによって，県天然記念物指定当時の貴重な在来種ゲンジボタルは滅ぼされてしまった。

参照サイト：辰野の移入（外来）ホタル　生物多様性の喪失へ

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