A free field guide to Borneo's lantern bugs — 21 Fulgoridae species confirmed native to the island, from the boldly patterned Sultan Lanternfly to the endemic Kinabatangan specialist, the Starry Lanternfly, each with photographs and identification notes. Nothing to buy and nothing to sign up for.
What Borneo's lantern bug list looks like
Lantern bugs (family Fulgoridae) are large, sap-feeding planthoppers, often mistaken for moths, best known for the elongated, sometimes upturned snout many species carry — despite the common name, they do not actually glow. Borneo's forests hold a striking diversity of them, dominated by the genus Pyrops, alongside smaller genera like Penthicodes and Scamandra.
This guide covers only species confirmed native to Borneo. The source material behind many "Borneo" lantern bug photo sets in circulation actually mixes in Sumatran and Javan species, which are not included here.
Where to find them
Lantern bugs are a night-walk species — spend the day motionless on a single tree trunk, and are found by scanning bark with a torch rather than watching the sky. Danum Valley, Sepilok and the Kinabatangan river forests in Sabah are reliable sites for several of the Pyrops species covered here.
All 21 species
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