![]() ![]() In 2019, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation published a report on North American fireflies, warning that “populations appear to be in decline”. ![]() ![]() However, fireflies are the most prominent. They are beetles.”įireflies are not the only luminous insects: three other beetle families have luminescent members, as do fungus gnats. All these terms are misleading, says Lower. In Europe they are often called glow-worms, while American fireflies with flashing lights are known as lightning bugs. Early in their history, they split into two groups, one of which spread throughout the Americas while the other colonised Europe and Asia.įireflies all belong to a family of beetles called Lampyridae. “The estimates we have currently are that fireflies are over 100m years old,” she says. There have been fireflies since the dinosaur era, says evolutionary geneticist Sarah Lower, an assistant professor of biology at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Different species of firefly on display at the Forest Research Institute in Kuala Lumpur. ![]()
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