![]() ![]() He’s trying to catch the eye of a female firefly, who he hopes will blink her own light in response from somewhere nearby. For the light-up species, the male will fly around and blink his lights in a certain, species-specific pattern-like a love song in Morse code. Some species of fireflies evolved to use blinking or glowing lights to find a breeding partner, while others evolved to use invisible chemical signals (pheromones) instead. ![]() The reason why only some fireflies light up all comes down to-like most things in life-attracting a mate. ![]() In fact, despite their common name, many firefly species are unable to produce any light at all. Some fireflies blink their lights on and off in fancy patterns, others just emit a steady glow, and some can’t do either of those things. This process is commonly known as bioluminescence and can be found in anything from fish to fungi. Through the use of specialized organs in their abdomens, they’re able to set off chemical reactions that result in a blinking or glowing light. ![]() So when fireflies aren’t flying around and showing off their luminance, what are they doing? Where do they go during the day? What do fireflies eat? What do they even look like when they’re not a blinking yellow-green light?īelow, you’ll find the enlightening answers to all of these common firefly questions.įireflies (or “lightning bugs”) are a family of beetles known for their ability to produce light. Most of us have probably only crossed paths with fireflies during the evening hours, when our lives briefly overlap, but this means that the rest of a firefly’s life, despite it being among the most famous and well-liked insects, is largely shrouded in mystery. For a lot of people, the blinking lights of fireflies are just as much a part of the classic summer nighttime scene as the chirping of crickets, the calling of katydids, or the buzzing of mosquitoes (as much as we wish that last one wasn’t). If you were anything like me, you devoted at least a few of those evenings to chasing fireflies around your backyard, glass jar in hand. " Rhythmic Entrainment: Why Humans Want to, Fireflies Can’t Help It, Pet Birds Try, and Sea Lions Have to Be Bribed." Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.Think back to those warm summer nights you spent in New England when you were a child. " Do Courtship Flashes of Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) Serve as Aposematic Signals to Insectivorous Bats?" Animal Behaviour. " Total Evidence Phylogeny and the Evolution of Adult Bioluminescence in Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. " Thieves in the Night: Kleptoparasitism by Fireflies in the Genus Photuris Dejean (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)." The Coleopterists Bulletin. " Courtship and Mating in Phausis Reticulata (Coleoptera: Lampyridae): Male Flight Behaviors, Female Glow Displays, and Male Attraction to Light Traps." The Florida Entomologist. " The Evolution of the Adenylate-Forming Protein Family in Beetles: Multiple Luciferase Gene Paralogues in Fireflies and Glow-Worms." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
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