They’re a common sight on summer nights: fireflies.
Or you might call them lightning bugs.
When all is dark, you can’t help but notice the flashes of green or yellow light time and time again as the rare, rather peculiar insects fly around.
Contrary to their name fireflies aren’t flies – or bugs – but actually soft-winged beetles. As you might expect, they’re best known for their dramatic sign – their light – and there’s a specific reason for the glow; it’s to find a mate.
Their ability to flicker is made possible through bioluminescence, a process in which they produce a chemical reaction that in turn creates and emits light.
If you sit and watch fireflies for any extended period of time – you might be able to notice something – a light pattern. They actually use certain patterns of turning their light on and off to find each other.
“If you’re watching fireflies, the ones you see flying around and flickering are mostly males,” Richard Zack, an insect scientist at Washington State University said in a Dr. Universe article. “If you look down at the ground, you will see flickering females. So, what happens is the male is out there giving off its species’ flick, flick, flick pattern. Then a female of the same species will respond with a different pattern. Ideally the right male finds the right female, and they mate and everybody’s happy.”
But finding a mate is not the only reason for the flickering light.
The glow also serves as a warning to any potential predators that they’ll want to steer away. Fireflies are filled with a nasty-tasting chemical called lucibufagens, and after a predator gets a mouthful, it quickly learns to associate the firefly’s glow with this bad taste, according to the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah.
Not all fireflies can produce the awful-tasting chemicals. Those that can’t are actually able to eat others that can and in turn mimic the flashing pattern of the other species.
Some species even have the ability to coordinate their blinking throughout entire swarms – a rare trait that only a handful of species in North America can accomplish, according to the University of Pittsburgh.
When it comes to fireflies, there are still some unknowns.
Though it can’t be said for certain, entomologists believe fireflies control their flashing by regulating how much oxygen goes to their light-producing organs, according to North Carolina State University.
While most fireflies glow, not all actually do.
Those found in the western U.S. either don’t light up at all or the glow is so faint, you can barely make them out. To find their mates, these unique fireflies rely on chemical signals.
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