Fireflies
The Lampyridae are a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged soft-bodied beetles, commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous use of bioluminescence during twilight to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. This chemically produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale red, with wavelengths from 510 to 670 nanometers. Some species such as the dimly glowing "blue ghost" of the Eastern US are commonly thought to emit blue light (<490 nanometers), however this is a false perception of their truly green emission light due to the Purkinje effect.About 2,100 species of fireflies are found in temperate and tropical climates. Many are in marshes or in wet, wooded areas where their larvae have abundant sources of food. Some species are called "glowworms" in Eurasia and elsewhere. The form of the insect which emits light varies from species to species. Sometimes it is the larvae which emit light, sometimes a larviform female, sometimes the eggs emit light. (In the glow worm found in the UK, Lampyris noctiluca, it is the female that is most easily noticed.) In the Americas, "glow worm" also refers to the related Phengodidae. In New Zealand and Australia the term "glow worm" is in use for the luminescent larvae of the fungus gnat Arachnocampa. In many species of fireflies, both male and female fireflies have the ability to fly, but in some species, the females are flightless.
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