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- ›Click, Firefly, and Soldier Beetles
Fireflies
Lampyridae
The Lampyridae are a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged beetles, commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous use of bioluminescence during twilight to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. This chemically produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale red, with wavelengths from 510 to 670 nanometers.
12 branches of this family, most-observed first
typical fireflies
subfamilyLampyrinae
Photurinae
subfamilyPhoturinae
Flashing Fireflies
subfamilyLuciolinae
Lamprohizinae
subfamilyLamprohizinae
Ototretinae
subfamilyOtotretinae
Amydetinae
subfamilyAmydetinae
Pterotinae
subfamilyPterotinae
Cladodinae
subfamilyCladodinae
Psilocladinae
subfamilyPsilocladinae
Cyphonocerinae
subfamilyCyphonocerinae
Pristolycus
genusPristolycus
Chespiritoinae
subfamilyChespiritoinae
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Lampyridae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 47731.