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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] The type species is Lampyris noctiluca , the common glow-worm of Europe.
Photinus pyralis, also known by the common names the common eastern firefly [3] or big dipper firefly, [4] and sometimes called a "lightning bug", [5] is a species of flying beetle. An organ on its abdomen is responsible for its light production. [ 6 ]
University of California. 2021 "California Terrestrial and Vernal Pool Invertebrates of Conservation Priority". California Department of Fish and Wildlife. 12 June 2017 "Giant Isopod". Aquarium of the Pacific. 2023; Gordon Ramel. "The Invertebrate Phyla". "Intertidal Field Guide".
While these bugs aren’t bioluminescent, they are often mistaken for fireflies, the most famous light-emitting insects! Soldier beetles are known for their heads mimicking a firefly’s colors.
What do you call them: firefly or lightning bugs? It turns out they are the same insect! We explain the regional difference in how they are named in America.
They are among the "flashing" (as opposed to continuous-glow) fireflies known as "lightning bugs" in North America, although they are not too distantly related to the flashing fireflies in the Lampyrinae; as the most basal lineages of that subfamily do not produce light at all, the Photurinae's flashing signals seem to be convergent evolution. [2]
State insects are designated by 48 individual states of the fifty United States. Some states have more than one designated insect, or have multiple categories (e.g., state insect and state butterfly, etc.). Iowa and Michigan are the two states without a designated state insect.
Many Pennsylvanians know these insects by the name "lightning bugs" and may have confused "firefly" with "black fly" when that state was plagued by them in 1988 [citation needed]. This might be why that year the legislature again confirmed the Pennsylvania firefly's official status and specified it by scientific name. The amended act reads: