Firefly Facts
Firefly Facts
2. It’s awesome adaptations are wings that help them fly in the night time sky, and it’s glowing light. Females do not fly. The females have a smaller light then the males. The firefly has many physical features.
3. Fireflies live in almost every part of the world! They live along edges of forests and in meadows. They don’t live in cold or dry areas.
4. The firefly eats many things and many things eat it. The larva eats insects, worms, and snails. The adult firefly eats either nectar or nothing. The fireflies’ predators are other fireflies, toads, insects, spiders, lizards, and birds.
5. Firefly has the word “fly” in it, but it’s a beetle. It has a softer exoskeleton than other beetles.
6. The fireflies are also called Lightning Bugs.
7. Fireflies are soft bodied beetles. On the underside of the abdomen it have special light organs that glows in luminous flashes.
8. Fireflies use Aggressive Mimicry. Recent evidence also suggests that these female mimics are not only for acquiring food but also defensive chemicals from their prey, which they themselves do not produce in large quantities.
9. Fireflies tend to be brown and soft-bodied, often with the elytra (front wings) more leathery than in other beetles.
10. Although the females of some species are similar in appearance to males, larviform females are found in many other firefly species. These females can often be distinguished from the larvae only because they have compound eyes.
11. The common European glowworm, in which only the nonflying adult females glow brightly and the flying males glow only weakly and intermittently.
12. The life span of an adult firefly is 5 to 30 days.
13. About 2,000 species of firefly are found in temperate and tropical environments.
14. A few days after mating, a female lays her fertilized eggs on or just below the surface of the ground. The eggs hatch three to four weeks later, and the larvae feed until the end of the summer. These larvae emit light and are often called "glowworms", in particular, in Eurasia.
15. The larvae of most species are specialized predators and feed on other larvae, terrestrial snails, and slugs. One such species is Alecton discoidalis, which is found in Cuba.
16. The luminescent organs are called Lanterns
17. Firefly light is usually intermittent, and flashes in patterns that are unique to each species. Each blinking pattern is an optical signal that helps fireflies find potential mates. Scientists are not sure how the insects regulate this process to turn their lights on and off.
18. In many species, both male and female fireflies have the ability to fly, but in some species, females are flightless.
19. Fireflies are beneficial insects, say for gardens. The larvae are predators and feed on other insect larvae, snails and slugs. Adult fireflies of some species also are predatory.
20. Fireflies have dedicated light organs that are located under their abdomens. The insects take in oxygen and, inside special cells, combine it with a substance called luciferin to produce light with almost no heat.
21. Females deposit their eggs in the ground, which is where larvae develop to adulthood.Underground larvae feed on worms and slugs by injecting them with a numbing fluid.
22. The lightning bug has different techniques to survive. The male has a special liquid that he can squirt the predator to get away and to kill the pray. People use spray to get rid of bugs so, it also kills them. If you see a bug that looks like a firefly, tell your parents not to spray it.
23. The firefly technique is used to study heart disease, muscular dystrophy, urology, antibiotic testing, waste water treatment, environmental protection and diagnosis of hypothermia in swine.
24. Special electronic detectors, using firefly chemicals, have been placed in spacecrafts to look for earth-life forms in outer space.
25. The photinus pyralins is a very interesting insect.
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