Family Lampyridae, Fireflies, or the ever elusive Lightning Bugs

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          The experience that has been on the top of my bucket list since I can remember was watching the fireflies lighting up during a Midwestern summer. The “lightning bug” or the “firefly” is in the family Lampyridae, order Coleoptera, Suborder Polyphaga, Infraorder Elateriformia, and superfamily Elateroidea. Lampyridae are medium-sized brown or black beetles, often with red and yellow coloration. A distinguishable characteristic is their ability to emit light during the mating season, which attracts the opposite sex during the evening after dusk (Hess 39). Most of the species of fireflies are bioluminescent during the larval and adult stages, except one species (Pyropyga fenestralis), which only emits lights during the larval stage (Hess 39). They are often nocturnal, but can be diurnal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly#/media/File:Photuris_lucicrescens.jpg
            Fireflies are found in temperate and tropic habitats. Their lighting signals are seasonal, usually during the first weeks of the summer. In most species, both the females and males can fly however, in some species, the female cannot. The larvae of fireflies are carnivores, usually eating snails or other small invertebrates. Some species of adults eat nectar while others do not feed (Zielinski 2012).
            This family of insects is holometabolus, which is a synapomorphic trait, establishing that they are in the superorder of insects: Endopterygota. Also, their bioluminescence is almost completely energy efficient, and they can live for up to two months as adults when not in captivity.  The larvae stage lasts over two years, where they live subterraneously. Most adult Lampyridae only live two to four weeks, in which their life is completely absorbed in reproductive processes, as well as basic survival.
            Apparently, the lightning bug population is decreasing at a concerning rate, due to unknown causes, but one speculation is that light pollution degrades their luminescent communication. A study from 2009 performed in Italy studied the impact of urbanization on the firefly population of Luciola italica. It found that the places where the fireflies were present, and thus emitted light, were places in the city of Turin that had less artificial illumination in general (Picchi et al. 2013). This study also illustrated that the places that were deep in the city that fireflies were still present were locations that had more green areas, woody strips, or trees, (i.e. – parks stationed in the middle of the city) functioning as ecological corridors (Picchi et al. 2013).
             The emission of light for the use of attracting the opposite sex has been discovered in predecessors of the family Lampyridae. In a study by Branham and Wenzel in 2005, a phylogenetic analysis was done to show that bioluminescence has been present in beetles before the Lampyridae emerged (Branham and Wenzel 2005). This trait was first used for aposematic warning in beetles, but it evolved into a function primarily used for mating in certain predecessors of Lampyridae; however, fireflies still used their bioluminescence for aposematic warning, since predators recognize the light signaling inedibility and potential toxicity.  In earlier ancestors of these beetles, pheromones were used to attract the opposite sex; however, as they evolved, they soon used photic (light) signals in conjunction with pheremonic signals. They were completely replaced solely photic signals in the lineage of Lampyridae, just before Lamypridae emerged as a family (Branham and Wenzel 2005). Flashing sexual light signals emerged from Lampyridae family three times through convergent evolution.
https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Invertebrates/Firefly.aspx
            Photinus pryralis is a specific species in the Lampyridae family where competition is very high in males. Females were found to prefer bioluminescence that flashed more intensely. Males often synchronize their flashes, and this study proved that this synchronization is a competitive rather than cooperative process. If it were cooperative, it would be a signal to entice all females to mate, but since it is competitive, it serves the purpose of enabling females to compare flashing (Vencl and Carlson 1998). Females preferred males of both larger and smaller sizes depending on the type of courtship that was occurring, thus light patterning is more important than size.
            One place that has a particularly high diversity and number of fireflies is Sungai Teratak, Sabah, Malaysia. One study found that places where high numbers of other insects also had high levels of fireflies. However, it also found that there was no difference in the abundance of fireflies on nights with no moon or nights with a full moon (Dawood and Foo 2015). The fireflies colonized a specific magrove tree from the species Avicennia alba.  
            The firefly produces light using a chemical reaction where oxygen reacts with calcium, adenosine triphosphate and luciferin, in the presence of the luciferase enzyme (Zielinski 2012). This enzyme is useful for chemical and biological research because it can determine ATP levels in cell reactions (Zielinski 2012). Unfortunately, however, this highly effective research product could be a factor in the decline of fireflies, since some research companies use fireflies to produce luciferase for their research, even though this compound can now be made synthetically. Another reason why fireflies populations are decreasing are habitat destruction, which is extremely critical for all species, but especially for the fireflies because they cannot migrate to other locations once their habitat has been destroyed; instead, that population dies off permanently (Zielinski 2012).
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/14-fun-facts-about-fireflies-142999290/

1) Branham, Marc A., and John W. Weznel. "The Origin of Photic Behavior and the Evolution of Sexual                 Communication in Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)." Cladistics 19.1 (2003): 1-22.

2) Dawood, Mahadimenakbar Mohamed, and Kevin Foo. "Diversity of Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)             of Sungai Teratak, Sabah, Malaysia." Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation 12 (2015): 1-               11.

3) "Fireflies, Lightning Bugs - National Wildlife Federation." Wildlife Library. National Wildlife Federation,                Web. 1996-2016.
           
4) Hess, Walter. "NOTES ON THE BIOLOGY OF SOME COMMON LAMPYRIDÆ." The Biological                           Bulletin 38.2 (1920): 39-76.

5) Picchi, Malayka Samantha, Lerina Avolio, Laura Azzani, Orietta Brombin, and Giuseppe Camerini.                    "Fireflies and Land Use in an Urban Landscape: The Case of Luciola Italica L. (Coleoptera:                         Lampyridae) in the City of Turin."Journal of Insect Conservation 17.4 (2013): 797-805.
5)
6) Vencl, Fredric V., and Albert D. Carlson. "Proximate Mechanisms of Sexual Selection in the Firefly                       Photinus Pyralis (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)."Journal of Insect Behavior 11.2 (1998): 191-207.

6) Zielinski, Sarah. "14 Fun Facts About Fireflies." Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian, 27 June 2012.
           

           

            

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