Firefly

This article is about the family of insects. For other uses, see Firefly (disambiguation).
"Lucciola" redirects here. For the 1917 Italian film, see Lucciola (film). For the Italian restaurant in New York, see Lucciola (restaurant).

Firefly
Temporal range: Cenomanian-Recent
Photuris lucicrescens
Photuris lucicrescens[4]
Lampyris noctiluca mating
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Infraorder: Elateriformia
Superfamily: Elateroidea
Family: Lampyridae
Rafinesque, 1815
Subfamilies

Amydetinae[1]
Cheguevariinae[2]
Chespiritoinae[3]
Cyphonocerinae
Lamprohizinae[1]
Lampyrinae
Luciolinae
Ototretinae
Photurinae
Psilocladinae[1]
Pterotinae[1]

Genera incertae sedis:[1]
Anadrilus Kirsch, 1875
Araucariocladus Silveira and Mermudes, 2017
Crassitarsus Martin, 2019
Lamprigera Motschulsky, 1853
Oculogryphus
Jeng, Engel, and Yang, 2007
Photoctus McDermott, 1961
Pollaclasis Newman, 1838

The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production of light, mainly during twilight, to attract mates.[5] Light production in the Lampyridae is thought to have originated as a warning signal that the larvae were distasteful. This ability to create light was then co-opted as a mating signal and, in a further development, adult female fireflies of the genus Photuris mimic the flash pattern of the Photinus beetle in order to trap their males as prey.

Fireflies are found in temperate and tropical climates. Many live in marshes or in wet, wooded areas where their larvae have abundant sources of food. While all known fireflies glow as larvae, only some species produce light in their adult stage, and the location of the light organ varies among species and between sexes of the same species. Fireflies have attracted human attention since classical antiquity; their presence has been taken to signify a wide variety of conditions in different cultures and is especially appreciated aesthetically in Japan, where parks are set aside for this specific purpose.

  1. ^ a b c d e Martin, Gavin J.; Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F.; Branham, Marc A.; et al. (1 November 2019). Jordal, Bjarte (ed.). "Higher-Level Phylogeny and Reclassification of Lampyridae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea)". Insect Systematics and Diversity. 3 (6). Oxford University Press ). doi:10.1093/isd/ixz024.
  2. ^ Ferreira, Vinicius S.; Keller, Oliver; Branham, Marc A.; Ivie, Michael A. (2019). "Molecular data support the placement of the enigmatic Cheguevaria as a subfamily of Lampyridae (Insecta: Coleoptera)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 187 (4). Oxford University Press: 1253–1258. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz073.
  3. ^ Ferreira, Vinicius S.; Keller, Oliver; Branham, Marc A (1 November 2020). Marvaldi, Adriana (ed.). "Multilocus Phylogeny Support the Nonbioluminescent Firefly Chespirito as a New Subfamily in the Lampyridae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea)". Insect Systematics and Diversity. 4 (6). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/isd/ixaa014.
  4. ^ Cirrus Digit Firefly Photuris lucicrescens
  5. ^ BugGuide: common names