On balmy evenings, amorous fireflies put on a spellbinding show in North American forests says Mike Dilger <\/p>
Described by poet David McCord as \u201clittle lanterns sailing by, like stars across a mimic sky\u201d, the sight of fireflies lighting up the night as they search for mates is a shining example of a wildlife spectacle.<\/strong><\/p> Fireflies are also known as \u2018lightning bugs\u2019 and \u2018glow worms<\/a>\u2019, but these alternative names are as taxonomically illiterate as \u2018fireflies\u2019, since these illuminating insects are in fact beetles from the family Lampyridae. <\/p> More than 2,000 species are currently described and many of them are capable of emitting light, with aerial displays recorded from Mexico to Malaysia and Japan to the Phillippines. However, fireflies are perhaps best known and have been most comprehensively studied in the USA.<\/p> The magic trick of bioluminescence is, of course, not confined to beetles, with certain fungi, jellyfish, shrimps and plankton also capable of manufacturing light, at least in some capacity. <\/p>What are fireflies?<\/h2>
What causes fireflies to glow?<\/h2>