The external morphology of aquatic, semiaquatic and terrestrial lucioline larvae was investigated in order to provide anoverview of what traits constitute the extremely ecologically diverse Luciolinae (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). The aquaticspecies, Aquatica ficta (Olivier), A. leii (Fu et Ballantyne), A. hydrophila (Jeng et al.), A. lateralis (Motschulsky), A. wu-hana Fu et Ballantyne, Luciola cruciata Motschulsky and L. owadai Satô et Kimura cannot swim, but instead crawl onthe substrate. They have soft bodies, lateral abdominal tracheal gills and glands on eversible structures that secrete repel-lent substances. The back-swimming species, Luciola substriata Gorham and L. aquatilis Thancharoen, which inhabit thesurface of ponds, have hardened exoskeletons, and lack gills and eversible glands. Unlike the crawling species, the back-swimmers have sense organs along the ventral surface of the apical maxillary and labial palpomeres, and are metapneusticin their later instars. The larval morphology of the aquatic species is contrasted with Pygoluciola qingyu Fu et Ballantyne, whose larvae are semiaquatic and lack gills, and with the terrestrial larvae of Asymmetricata circumdata (Motsch.) (newly