Bugs in Danger by Mark Kurlansky

Author:Mark Kurlansky
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781547603404
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Firefly species in the eastern United States, famous for their light displays, are popularly called lightning bugs. One of the most popular is Photinus pyralis, commonly known as a Big Dipper lightning bug. A particularly large firefly, it lights up and dips toward the ground and then partially curves up, making a letter J in light. Seen primarily at dusk, they fly close to the ground, and they are comfortable in the backyards of suburbia. These are the ones that kids capture.

The leading European species is called glowworm fireflies. In this species, the females are wingless and shinny up trees to a prominent position. From there, they light up and remain glowing until they attract a male of their species. He flies but produces no light. It may take the female hours of glowing to attract a male. Some females also give off an enticing aroma to attract the opposite sex. In effect, they wear perfume. Almost a quarter of the fireflies in the world are the ones called glowworms. They are common in all of Europe and much of Asia, but a rarity in North America. Male glowworms are not the only ones without lights. There are also so-called dark fireflies that fly in daylight rather than night. They find their mates entirely by smelling the scents emitted by the females without any lights.

Bioluminescence can turn up in various stages of a firefly’s life. Sometimes even their eggs will glow, though why this happens is uncertain—perhaps it is to scare off egg-eating creatures. The one stage in which all firefly species glow is the larva, a stage that has nothing to do with mating—so scientists think the purpose must be a warning, a lure, or something to do with hunting. Like many insects, fireflies are their most brutal as larvae. At that stage, they need to take in as much food as they can in order to grow before they are sealed-up pupae. They devour animals that are much larger, such as snails and worms. They have sharp, powerful jaws and a small toothlike tube, through which they inject their victim with paralyzing poisons. We rarely see firefly larvae because they live underground or in water, where there are many animals to eat.

Larvae produce their glow from two spots at the end of their abdomen. If they are touched or in any way disturbed, they glow. Fireflies spend most of their lives as larvae before becoming pupae for two weeks, during which they continue to glow. At this stage, as they are transforming into adults, some species may have a completely different lighting mechanism than others. Some glow at this stage and never glow again.

Though the mating and the big light show seem like the exciting part of a firefly’s life, when this occurs, the animal has only a few more weeks left to live. It is desperately trying to mate and pass on genes before it dies. The adult firefly does not even eat: it spends its stored energy until it dies.

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