Anyone who has ever seen myriads of tiny lights dancing in a field or forest at night will not forget about this bewitching spectacle. Would you like to take a closer look at the mysterious lanterns that decorate the summer night? This firefly is an insect that belongs to the family of beetles, order Coleoptera, called Lampyridae in Latin.
Why do they glow?
Fireflies have their amazing ability to glow because they have special organs at the bottom of their abdomen, consisting of photogenic cells and reflectors below them, which are filled with uric acid crystals. Oxidative processes take place here, causing luminescence. Light can be of different strength and duration, but always greenish or insects use it both to protect themselves from predators, warning about their inedibility by glowing, and to attract representatives of the opposite sex.
Firefly - insect of the night
Several species of fireflies live in our latitudes. One of them - Ivanovo worms - nocturnal insects that spend the day in thick grass and fallen leaves, and with the onset of night they go hunting. These fireflies live in the forest, where they hunt spiders, snails and small insects. The female of the Ivanovo worm cannot fly and is completely brown-brown, only on the underside are three segments of the abdomen white. They are the ones that glow brightly. A firefly is an insect with which you can even read by moving a living flashlight along the lines. And the fireflies living in the Caucasus glow in flight. These reddish sparks, dancing in the thick darkness of the southern night, give it a special mystery and charm.
mating season
At the moment when it is time for mating, the male firefly, whose photo you saw in the article, goes in search of a sign from a female who wants to continue the race. And as soon as he finds one, he goes down to her. The fact is that different types of fireflies emit light at different frequencies, and this is a guarantee that representatives of the same species will mate with each other. A firefly is an insect in which it is the female who chooses a partner. She defines it by the nature of the glow. The higher the frequency of its flicker, the brighter the light emanating from it, the more likely the male is to bewitch his partner. Male fireflies perform collective "serenades" to their ladies, simultaneously lighting and extinguishing their lanterns. Trees entwined with such "light music" shine brighter than storefronts in big cities. But there are cases of deadly marriage games. The female uses an inviting light sign in order to attract males of another species. When seduced fertilizers appear, she simply eats them.
procreation
From the eggs that the female laid after fertilization, large voracious black larvae with yellow spots appear. By the way, they also glow, like adults. By autumn, they hide in the bark of trees, where they remain for the whole winter. And the next spring, waking up, they feed for several weeks, then pupate, and after 1-2.5 weeks new adult fireflies develop from them, capable of surprising us with their mysterious night glow.
The firefly insect is a large family of beetles with an amazing ability to emit light.
Despite the fact that insect fireflies do not bring practically any benefit to humans, the attitude towards these unusual insects has always been positive.
Watching the simultaneous flickering of many lights in the night forest, you can be transported for a while into the fairy tale of fireflies.
Habitat
The firefly beetle lives in North America, Europe and Asia. It can be found in tropical and deciduous forests, meadows, glades and swamps.
Appearance
Outwardly, the firefly insect looks very modest, even nondescript. The body is elongated and narrow, the head is very small, the antennae are short. The size of the insect firefly is small - on average from 1 to 2 centimeters. The body color is brown, dark gray or black.
In many species of beetles, differences between male and female are pronounced. Male firefly insects resemble cockroaches in appearance, can fly, but do not glow.
The female looks very similar to a larva or a worm, she does not have wings, so she leads a sedentary lifestyle. But the female knows how to glow, which attracts representatives of the opposite sex.
Why does it glow
The luminous swell organ of the insect firefly is located in the back of the abdomen. It is an accumulation of light cells - photocytes, through which multiple tracheae and nerves pass.
Each such cell contains the substance luciferin. During breathing, oxygen enters the luminous organ through the trachea, under the influence of which luciferin is oxidized, releasing energy in the form of light.
Due to the fact that nerve endings pass through the light cells, the firefly insect can independently regulate the intensity and mode of the glow. It can be a continuous glow, blinking, pulsing or flashes. Thus, bugs glowing in the dark resemble a New Year's garland.
Lifestyle
Fireflies are not collective insects, however, they often form large clusters. During the day, fireflies insects rest, sitting on the ground or on plant stalks, and at night they begin an active life.
Different types of fireflies differ in the nature of their diet. Harmless herbivorous insect fireflies feed on pollen and nectar.
Predatory individuals attack spiders, centipedes and snails. There are even species that at the adult stage do not feed at all, moreover, they do not have a mouth..
Lifespan
The female beetle lays its eggs on a bed of leaves. After some time, black-and-yellow larvae emerge from the eggs. They have an excellent appetite, in addition, the firefly insect glows when disturbed.
Beetle larvae overwinter in the bark of trees. In the spring they emerge from the shelter, feed intensively, then pupate. After 2 - 3 weeks, adult fireflies emerge from the cocoon.
- The brightest firefly beetle lives in the American tropics.
- In length, it reaches 4 - 5 centimeters, and not only the abdomen, but also the chest glows in it.
- In terms of the brightness of the emitted light, this bug is 150 times superior to its European relative, the common firefly.
- Fireflies were used by the inhabitants of tropical villages as lamps. They were placed in small cages and with the help of such primitive lanterns they illuminated their dwellings.
- Every year at the beginning of summer, the Firefly Festival is held in Japan. With the onset of dusk, spectators gather in the garden near the temple and watch the fabulously beautiful flight of many luminous bugs.
- The most common species in Europe is the common firefly, which is popularly called the Ivan worm. It received such a name because of the belief that the firefly insect begins to glow on the night of Ivan Kupala.
On warm nights in late June - early July, walking along the edge of the forest, you can see bright green lights in the grass, as if someone had lit small green LEDs. Summer nights are short, you can watch this spectacle for just a couple of hours. But if you rake up the grass and shine a flashlight on the place where the light burns, you can see a nondescript worm-like segmented insect, in which the end of the abdomen glows green. This is what a female looks like firefly (Lampyris noctiluca). People call him Ivanov worm, Ivanovo worm because of the belief that for the first time in a year it appears on the night of Ivan Kupala. Only females waiting for males on the ground or vegetation can emit bright light; males practically do not emit light. The male firefly looks like an ordinary normal beetle with hard elytra, while the female in adulthood remains similar to a larva, and does not have wings at all. Light is used to attract the male. A special organ that emits a glow is located on the last segments of the abdomen and is very interesting: there is a lower layer of cells. containing a large number of urea crystals, and acting as a mirror that reflects light. The luminiferous layer itself is permeated with tracheae (for oxygen access) and nerves. Light is formed by the oxidation of a special substance - luciferin, with the participation of ATP. In fireflies, this is a very efficient process, occurring at almost 100% efficiency, all the energy goes into the light, with little or no heat. And now a little more about all this.
firefly (Lampyris noctiluca) is a member of the firefly family ( Lampyridae) order of beetles (coleoptera, Coleoptera). The males of these beetles have a cigar-shaped body, up to 15 mm long, and a rather large head with large hemispherical eyes. They fly well. Females, by their appearance, resemble larvae, have a worm-like body up to 18 mm long, and are wingless. Fireflies can be seen on forest edges, damp glades, on the banks of forest lakes and streams.
The main ones in every sense of the word are their luminous organs. In most fireflies, they are located in the back of the abdomen, resembling a large flashlight. These organs are arranged according to the principle of a lighthouse. They have a kind of "lamp" - a group of photocyte cells, braided with tracheae and nerves. Each such cell is filled with "fuel", which is the substance luciferin. When the firefly breathes, air through the trachea enters the luminous organ, where, under the influence of oxygen, luciferin is oxidized. During a chemical reaction, energy is released in the form of light. A real lighthouse always emits light in the right direction - towards the sea. Fireflies in this regard, too, are not far behind. Their photocytes are surrounded by cells filled with uric acid crystals. They perform the function of a reflector (mirror-reflector) and allow you not to waste valuable energy in vain. However, these insects might not care about economy, because any technician can envy the performance of their luminous organs. The efficiency of fireflies reaches a fantastic 98%! This means that only 2% of energy is wasted, and in the creations of human hands (cars, electrical appliances) from 60 to 96% of energy is wasted.
Several chemical compounds are involved in the glow reaction. One of them, resistant to heat and present in a small amount - luciferin. Another substance is the enzyme luciferase. Adenosine triphosphoric acid (ATP) is also needed for the glow reaction. Luciferase is a protein rich in sulfhydryl groups.
Light is produced by the oxidation of luciferin. Without luciferase, the rate of the reaction between luciferin and oxygen is extremely low, catalyzed by luciferase greatly increases its rate. ATP is required as a cofactor.
Light arises when oxyluciferin passes from the excited state to the ground state. At the same time, oxyluciferin is bound to the enzyme molecule and, depending on the hydrophobicity of the microenvironment of the excited oxyluciferin, the emitted light varies in different firefly species from yellow-green (with a more hydrophobic microenvironment) to red (with a less hydrophobic one). The fact is that with a more polar microenvironment, part of the energy is dissipated. Luciferases from various fireflies generate bioluminescence with peaks from 548 to 620 nm. In general, the energy efficiency of the reaction is very high: almost all the energy of the reaction is transformed into light without emitting heat.
All beetles contain the same luciferin. Luciferases, on the contrary, are different in different species. It follows that the change in the color of the luminescence depends on the structure of the enzyme. Studies have shown that the temperature and pH of the medium have a significant effect on the color of the glow. At the microscopic level, luminescence is characteristic only of the cytoplasm of cells, while the nucleus remains dark. The luminescence is emitted by photogenic granules located in the cytoplasm. In the study of fresh sections of photogenic cells in ultraviolet rays, these granules can be detected by their other property - fluorescence - depending on the presence of luciferin.
The quantum yield of the reaction is unusually high compared to classical examples of luminescence, approaching unity. In other words, for each luciferin molecule involved in the reaction, one light quantum is emitted.
Fireflies are carnivores, feeding on insects and mollusks. Firefly larvae lead a wandering life, like ground beetle larvae. The larvae feed on small invertebrates, mainly terrestrial mollusks, in the shells of which they often hide themselves.
Adult beetles do not feed and die shortly after mating and oviposition. The female lays eggs on leaves or on the ground. Soon, black larvae with yellow speckles appear from them. They eat a lot and grow quickly and, by the way, also glow. In early autumn, while it is still warm, they climb under the bark of trees, where they spend the whole winter. In the spring, they emerge from the shelter, feed for several days, and then pupate. Two weeks later, young fireflies appear.
Looking at the bright flickering of fireflies, since ancient times, people have been wondering why not use them for useful purposes. The Indians attached them to moccasins to illuminate the paths and scare away snakes. The first settlers in South America used these bugs as lighting for their huts. In some settlements, this tradition has been preserved to this day.
These luminous bugs are much more favorably treated by many than most of their "relatives". They even call these insects affectionately - fireflies. Probably because in their habitats they create a special mysterious and romantic atmosphere at night.
What does a firefly look like and what makes it glow? This question is of interest to many, and in this article we will try to give an exhaustive answer to it.
Spreading
Fireflies are widespread in North America, Asia and Europe. They can be found in deciduous and tropical forests, in glades, meadows and swamps. This is a representative of a large family from the order of beetles, which has an amazing ability to emit a fairly bright light.
The firefly is an insect belonging to the firefly family (Lampyridae), a detachment of beetles. The family includes over two thousand species. It is especially widely represented in the subtropics and tropics, rather limited in the temperate zone. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, there are seven genera and almost 20 species. And in our country, many people know what a firefly looks like. 15 species are registered in Russia.
For example, nocturnal insects Ivanovo worms that spend the day in fallen leaves and thick grass, and with the onset of twilight go hunting. These fireflies live in the forest where they prey on small spiders, small insects and snails. The female cannot fly. It is completely colored brown-brown, only three segments are white on the underside of the abdomen. Here they are and emit bright light.
Fireflies living in the Caucasus glow in flight. Sparkles dance in thick darkness and give the southern night a special charm.
What does a firefly look like?
I must say that in daylight these bugs look quite modest, even, one might say, nondescript. The body is narrow and elongated, the head is small with short antennae. Yes, and the size of the firefly can not boast - an average of one to two centimeters. The body of different species is colored dark gray, black or brown. Many species have pronounced sex differences: males are larger than females. In addition, male individuals outwardly very much resemble cockroaches. They can fly, but they don't glow.
What does a female firefly look like? It looks like a worm or a larva. She has no wings, so she is inactive. But it is the female in most species that glows, attracting males to herself. These beetles do not have lungs, and oxygen is transmitted through special tubes - tracheoles. The supply of oxygen is "stored" in the mitochondria.
Lifestyle
Fireflies do not belong to collective insects, but despite this they often form rather large clusters. Many of our readers have no idea what fireflies look like, because they are difficult to see during the day: they rest sitting on plant stems or the ground, and lead an active life at night.
According to the nature of nutrition, different types of fireflies also differ. Herbivorous harmless bugs feed on nectar and pollen. Predatory individuals attack spiders, ants, snails and centipedes. There are species whose adults do not feed at all, they do not even have a mouth.
Why do fireflies glow?
Probably, many had a chance in childhood, while relaxing with their grandmother or in a camp on the Black Sea coast, to see how fireflies flicker in the evening, when it gets dark. Children love to collect unique insects in jars and admire how fireflies glow. The photophore is the luminous organ of these insects. It is located in the lower part of the abdomen and consists of three layers. The bottom one is mirrored. It can reflect light. The top one is the transparent cuticle. The middle layer contains photogenic cells that produce light. As you might have guessed, in its structure this organ resembles a flashlight.
Scientists call this kind of glow bioluminescence, which results from the combination of oxygen cells with calcium, the pigment luciferin, an ATP molecule, and the loyciferase enzyme.
What kind of light do fireflies emit?
Unlike electric lamps, where most of the energy flows into useless heat, while the efficiency is no more than 10%, fireflies convert up to 98% of energy into light radiation. I mean, he's cold. The glow of these bugs is attributed to the visible yellow-green part of the spectrum, corresponding to wavelengths up to 600 nm.
Interestingly, some types of fireflies are able to increase or decrease the intensity of light. And even emit an intermittent glow. When the nervous system of an insect gives a signal to “turn on” the light, oxygen actively enters the photophore, and when its supply stops, the light “turns off”.
And yet why do fireflies glow? After all, not in order to please the eye of man? In fact, bioluminescence for fireflies is a means of communication between males and females. Insects do not easily signal their presence, but they also distinguish their partner by the frequency of flicker. North American and tropical species often perform choral serenades for their partners, flashing and fading at the same time as the whole flock. The group of the opposite sex answers them with the same signal.
reproduction
When the mating season comes, the male firefly is in a continuous search for a sign from his other half, ready for procreation. As soon as he discovers it, he goes down to the chosen one. Different types of fireflies emit light at different frequencies, and this, in turn, ensures that only members of the same species mate with each other.
Partner selection
Fireflies are matriarchy - the female chooses a partner. She determines it by the intensity of the glow. The brighter the light, the higher the frequency of its flicker, the more likely the male is to charm the female. In tropical forests, during collective "serenades", trees shrouded in such necklaces shine brighter than shop windows in megacities.
Cases of mating games with a fatal outcome have also been recorded. The female, using a light sign, attracts males of another species. When the unsuspecting fertilisers show up, the insidious seductress eats them up.
After fertilization, larvae appear from the eggs laid by the female. What do firefly larvae look like? Rather large, voracious, black-colored worms with clearly visible yellow spots. Interestingly, they glow, like adults. Closer to autumn, they hide in the bark of trees, where they hibernate.
Larvae develop slowly: in species living in the middle lane, the larvae hibernate, and in most subtropical species they grow for several weeks. The pupal stage lasts up to 2.5 weeks. The following spring, the larvae pupate and develop into new adults.
- The firefly, which emits the brightest light, lives in the tropics of America. It reaches a length of five centimeters. And he glows, in addition to the abdomen, and also the chest. Its light is 150 times brighter than that of its European counterpart.
- Scientists were able to isolate the gene that affects the glow. It was successfully introduced into plants, as a result, it was possible to obtain plantations glowing at night.
- Residents of tropical settlements used these bugs as a kind of lamps. The bugs were placed in small containers and such primitive lanterns illuminated the dwellings.
- Every year at the beginning of summer, the Firefly Festival is held in Japan. Spectators come to the garden near the temple at dusk and admire with delight the unusually beautiful flight of a huge number of luminous bugs.
- In Europe, the most common species is the common firefly, which is called the Ivan worm. The bug received this unusual name due to the belief that it glows on the night of Ivan Kupala.
We hope that you have received answers to questions about what a firefly looks like, where it lives and what kind of life it leads. These interesting insects have always aroused great human interest and, as you can see, quite rightly so.
living radiance
“... at first, only two or three green dots blinked there, smoothly sliding among the trees.
But gradually there were more of them, and now the whole grove was illuminated by a fantastic green glow.
We have never seen such a huge cluster of fireflies.
They rushed like a cloud among the trees, crawled over the grass, bushes and trunks...
Then sparkling streams of fireflies floated over the bay ... "
J. Durrell. "My family and other animals"
Everyone has heard of fireflies. Many have seen them. But what do we know about the biology of these amazing insects?
Fireflies, or fireflies, are representatives of a separate family Lampyridae in the order of beetles. In total there are about 2000 species, and they are distributed almost all over the world. The sizes of different types of fireflies range from 4 to 20 mm. The males of these beetles have a cigar-shaped body and a rather large head with large hemispherical eyes and short antennae, as well as very reliable and strong wings. But female fireflies are usually wingless, soft-bodied and resemble larvae in their appearance. True, in Australia there are species in which wings are developed in both males and females.
All types of fireflies have an amazing ability to emit soft phosphorescent light in the dark. Their luminous organ - photophore- most often located at the end of the abdomen and consists of three layers. The lower layer acts as a reflector - the cytoplasm of its cells is filled with microscopic uric acid crystals that reflect light. The top layer is represented by a transparent, light-transmitting cuticle - in a word, everything, as in an ordinary lantern. Actually photogenic, light-producing cells are located in the middle layer of the photophore. They are densely braided with tracheae, through which air enters with the oxygen necessary for the reaction, and contain a huge amount of mitochondria. Mitochondria produce the energy necessary for the oxidation of a special substance luciferin with the participation of the corresponding enzyme - luciferase. The visible result of this reaction is bioluminescence - luminescence.
The efficiency of firefly flashlights is unusually high. If in an ordinary light bulb only 5% of the energy is converted into visible light (and the rest is dissipated in the form of heat), then in fireflies, from 87 to 98% of the energy passes into light rays!
The light emitted by these insects belongs to a rather narrow yellow-green spectrum and has a wavelength of 500–650 nm. There are no ultraviolet and infrared rays in the bioluminescent light of fireflies.
The glowing process is under nervous control. Many species are able to increase or decrease the intensity of light at will, as well as emit intermittent light.
Both male and female fireflies have a luminous organ. Moreover, larvae, pupae, and even eggs laid by these beetles glow, although much weaker.
The light emitted by many tropical species of fireflies is very bright. The first Europeans who settled in Brazil, in the absence of candles, lit their homes with fireflies. They also filled the lamps in front of the icons. Indians, traveling at night through the jungle, still tie large fireflies to their big toes. Their light not only helps to see the road, but also, possibly, repels snakes.
Entomologist Evelyn Chisman wrote in 1932 that some eccentric ladies of South America and the West Indies, where especially large fireflies are found, decorated their hair and dress with these insects before evening holidays, and live jewelry sparkled like diamonds on them.
You and I cannot admire the glow of bright tropical species, but fireflies also live in our country.
Our most common big firefly(Lampyris noctiluca) is also known as Ivanov worm ". This name was given to the female of this species, which has an elongated wingless body. It is her rather bright flashlight that we usually notice in the evenings. Ivanova worm males are small (about 1 cm) brown bugs with well-developed wings. They also have organs of luminescence, but you can usually notice them only by taking the insect in your hands.
The book by Gerald Durrell, the lines from which are taken as an epigraph to our article, most likely mentions flying firefly -beetle luciola mingrelicaLuciola minrelica, found not only in Greece, but also on the Black Sea coast (including in the Novorossiysk region), and often arranging similar fantastic performances there.
And in Primorye you can meet a rare and little-studied firefly pyrocelia(Pyrocaelia rufa). Both males and females of this species actively glow on dark August nights.
Live in Japan Luciola parva and Luciola vitticollis.
It is believed that the bioluminescence of fireflies is a means of intersexual communication: partners let each other know about their location with light signals. And if our fireflies glow with a constant light, then many tropical and North American forms flash their lanterns, and in a certain rhythm. Some species perform real serenades for their partners, moreover choral ones, flashing and fading in unison with the whole flock gathered on one tree.
And the beetles, located on the neighboring tree, also flare up in concert, but not in time with the fireflies sitting on the first tree. Also, in their own rhythm, bugs glow on other trees. Eyewitnesses say that this sight is so bright and beautiful that it overshadows the illumination of large cities.
Hour after hour, weeks and even months, the bugs flash on their trees in the same rhythm. Neither wind nor heavy rain can change the intensity and frequency of flashes. Only the bright light of the moon can dim these unique natural lanterns for a while.
You can break the synchronism of the flashes if you illuminate the tree with a bright lamp. But when the external light goes out, the fireflies again, as if on command, begin to blink. First, those in the center of the tree adapt to the same rhythm, then the neighboring beetles connect to them and gradually the waves of lights flashing in unison spread through all the branches of the tree.
Male fireflies of different species fly in search of flashes of a certain intensity and frequency - signals emitted by the female of their species. As soon as the huge eyes catch the right light password, the male descends nearby, and the beetles, having shined their lights for each other, perform the sacrament of marriage. However, this idyllic picture can sometimes be disturbed in the most nightmarish way through the fault of the females of certain species belonging to the genus Photuris. These females emit signals that attract males of other species. And then they just eat them. Such a phenomenon is called aggressive mimicry.