Family Lampyridae - Fireflies

Firefly Beetles, Lightning Bugs, Glowworms (1)

lam-PEER-ih-dee

Lampyridae Rafinesque 1815

ca. 170 spp. in ~20 genera in our area(1), ~2200 described spp. in ~110 genera worldwide and estimated thousands undescribed(2)

Overview of our faunaFamily Lampyridae

Subfamily LAMPYRINAE

Subfamily PHOTURINAE Bicellonycha · Photuris

Subfamily OTOTETRINAE Brachylampis

Subfamily CYPHONOCERINAE Pollaclasis

Incertae sedis Pterotus

4-18 mm(1)

Soft-bodied beetles; head is concealed from above by pronotum (versus exposed in Cantharidae); last 2-3 abdominal sternites often modified to light-emitting organs; tarsal formula 5-5-5

In general, the bioluminescence of Photinus is yellow; Photuris, green; Pyractomena, orange-yellow or amber(1)

worldwide

larvae mostly in damp situations

Larvae prey on small animals, including snails; adults of many genera do not feed. Female Photuris are known to lure Photinus males using the flash pattern of female Photinus, and eat them to obtain defensive chemicals(5)

Some species, especially the genera Photinus, Photuris, and Pyractomena, are distinguished by the unique courtship flash patterns emitted by flying males in search of females. In general, females of the Photinus genus do not fly, but do give a flash response to males of their own species.

Larvae produce light to deter predators, but some species lose this ability as adults.

larvae luminescent, emit light from the tail area

Many firefly spp. are well chemically protected, primarily by the steroid-like lucibufagins that make them distasteful to jumping spiders and birds(5)

"Noteworthy sexual dimorphism: females of several species (e.g. Pleotomus spp., Pleotomodes spp., Lucidota luteicollis LeConte, and several in Photinus) have shortened elytra and wings, and females or both males and females of Pyropyga nigricans (G. A. Olivier) from some sites have reduced wings and elytra (Lloyd 1999). Brachyptery is not known to occur in Photuris, Ellychnia, or Pyractomena. Females of some genera, such as Microphotus and Phausis are larva-like to some degree, but whether they are larviform is problematic (see Cicero, 1988)." -Lloyd, 2002, American Beetles Vol. 2

(6)(7)(8)(9)

Martin G.J., Stanger-Hall K.F., Branham M.A., Da Silveira L.F.L., Lower S.E., Hall D.W., Li X., Lemmon A.R., Lemmon E.M., Bybee S.M. (2019) Higher-Level Phylogeny and Reclassification of Lampyridae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea). Insect Systematics and Diversity 3(6), 11: 1-15.

Green, J. W. 1948. Two new species of Lampyridae from southern Florida, with a generic revision of the Nearctic fauna (Coleoptera). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 74(2): 61–73. (JSTOR)

McDermott, F. A. 1964. The taxonomy of the Lampyridae (Coleoptera). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 90(1): 1–72.(JSTOR)

Fireflies of Texas (Quinn 2016)