![10 Fun Facts About Lightning Bugs [Explore Your Backyard]](https://ourlivelyadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_3883.png)
Whether you call them lightning bugs or fireflies, catching them should definitely be on your summer bucket list! Here in Indiana, we call them lightning bugs.
I have so many special memories of catching lightning bugs as a child. Running around barefoot in my backyard trying to see how many I could catch. Using an old pickle or peanut butter jar (with holes poked in the lid, of course) to keep them safe and secure.
Now, I get to enjoy watching my kids run around the yard catching lightning bugs and making sweet memories of their own. The only difference is that their bug holder is a little more advanced than a pickle jar!
What do we really know about lightning bugs? They come out during the summer months and they glow in the dark. That’s about it. At least that’s all I really knew about them until I started researching a bit.
Turns out, lightning bugs are pretty interesting! Like, did you know adult lightning bugs are cannibals? They have been known to eat other lightning bugs! Who knew the lightning bug world was so cutthroat?
Check out the 10 fun facts about lightning bugs in the next installment of the Explore Your Backyard series!
10 Fun Facts About Lightning Bugs
- NOT A BUG OR A FLY – Known as either Lightning Bugs or Fireflies, but they are actually in the beetle family.
2. THEY ARE TOXIC – Their bioluminescence also provides a chemical defense. It could take as few as 20 fireflies to provide a fatal dose of luciferin to an adult human.
3. BIOLUMINESCENCE – Bioluminescence is light produced within a living organism. Not all lightning bugs have the bioluminescent organ.
4. GLOWING EGGS – Lightning bug eggs emit a soft glow. Females lay upt o 500 eggs.
5. LIFESPAN– Lightning bugs spend 3 weeks as an egg, 1-2 years as a larva, 3 weeks as a pupa, and only 3-4 weeks as an adult.
6. LOOKING FOR LOVE– They use their light to attract a mate. The lights you see in your yard are usually males looking for a mate. They are waiting for a female to respond. The females hang out in the bushes and grass. When a female sees a male who catches her eye she will flash her light to tell him to come on over.
7. CANNIBALS– Larva eats snails and worms. Adult lightning bugs don’t eat much, but when they do it’s pollen, nectar, or even each other!
8. COLD LIGHT – Their light is the most efficient light in the world. “Cold Light” means 100% of the energy in the chemical reaction is emitted as light vs. the 10% emitted as light in an incandescent lightbulb.
9. HUMIDITY – They love warm humid environments. Dry, cool weather stresses them out and can cause their eggs to dry out.
10. STATE BUG – They are the state insect for Tennessee, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.
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