DESCRIBED BY POET DAVID MCCORD AS “little lanterns sailing by, like stars across a mimic sky”, the sight of fireflies lighting up the night as they search for mates is a shining example of a wildlife spectacle.
Fireflies are also known as ‘lightning bugs’ and ‘glow worms’, but these alternative names are as taxonomically illiterate as ‘fireflies’, since these illuminating insects are in fact beetles from the family Lampyridae. More than 2,000 species are currently described and many of them are capable of emitting light, with aerial displays recorded from Mexicoperhaps best known and have been most comprehensively studied in the USA.
