They are soft bodied beetles that are commonly called fireflies glowworms or lightning bugs for their conspicuous use of bioluminescence during twilight to attract mates or prey.
What is a lightning bug look like.
Description of a lightning bug an adult lightning bug photinus spp is a winged beetle that measures 7 16 to 9 16 inch long.
First let s make sure we re on the same page.
Ah this is a good question.
That means that lightning bugs are actually a type of beetle.
Adult lightning bugs who can live for several months probably feed on plant nectar.
That s not surprising since there are more than 350 000 known species of beetles.
Lighntning bug larvae look like sowbugs which are not even insects.
Several larvae have been seen attacking large prey together.
What you re calling lightning bugs i m assuming are any of a bunch of species of fireflies right.
It has a dark colored soft body with brownish black wing covers edged with a light yellow to yellowish.
You might be thinking that lightning bugs don t look like the types of beetles you ve seen before.
Both fireflies and sowbugs have oval segmented bodies.
Lightning bug larvae one of which is shown at the right have sickle shaped mandibles with which they can inject a kind of chemical that paralyzes their prey and helps digest it.
Fireflies produce a cold light with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies.
These are beetles in the family lampyridae which use a chemical reac.
They re actually the largest group of animals on earth.
Some adult soldier beetles resemble adult lightning bugs while sowbugs or pillbugs look like lightning bug larvae.