What Do Fireflies Eat? A Detailed Explanation of Firefly Diet

Fireflies, also known as night lights, sedum, shining glow, night shine, drifting glow, night candle, bright night, and so on, are small beetles of the family Lampyridae in the order Coleoptera. They are named fireflies because their tails can emit a glow. They are distributed in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions and are active at night. The eggs, larvae, and pupae can often also glow. The glow of adults serves to attract the opposite sex. The larvae prey on snails and small insects, and they like to live in damp, warm places with flourishing vegetation.

What Do Fireflies Eat

Fireflies are carnivorous organisms, and in the larval stage they mainly eat snails, river snails, and shellfish. Although firefly larvae are very small, they are very bold and dare to take on snails, even eating them. This is all because they have a unique set of “skills”. When a larva finds a snail, it first uses its needle-like mouth to jab the snail several times. What for? It is actually giving the snail a “anesthetic needle”. Fireflies can spray a toxin that paralyzes the snail. Next, they inject a digestive enzyme into the snail until the snail's flesh is turned into a thin, delicious meat juice. Then they call their companions over, surround the snail, and together insert their syringe-like mouths into the snail's flesh and suck up the meat juice. After the larvae become adults, they no longer hunt; they merely drink a little dew or take some nectar, until they finally starve to death.

The Living Habits of Fireflies

Fireflies are divided into two main categories according to their living environment: terrestrial and aquatic, with the former making up the majority. Terrestrial fireflies mostly live in places with high shade, dense vegetation, and high relative humidity, while aquatic fireflies have even higher environmental requirements: the water cannot be polluted, nor can there be light pollution. Firefly larvae are also divided into aquatic and terrestrial types, and generally need 6 molts before entering the pupal stage. In grassy areas, those often found with two glowing spots at the tail are the larvae of the terrestrial Lampyris noctiluca and the larvae of the bicolor hanging-antenna firefly that glows all over with alternating black and white. In these two species, the wings of the grown females are degenerated and not very different from the larval shape; only the males can fly.

The Principle of Firefly Bioluminescence

The glow of fireflies is a type of bioluminescence. Fireflies have specialized light-emitting cells, and in these light-emitting cells there are two types of chemicals: one is called luciferin (in fireflies it is called firefly luciferin), and the other is called luciferase. Luciferin can consume ATP under the catalysis of luciferase and react with oxygen, producing excited-state oxyluciferin in the reaction. When oxyluciferin returns from the excited state to the ground state, it releases photons. Almost all the energy released in the reaction is released in the form of light, with only a very small part released in the form of heat. The reaction efficiency is 95%, and because of this beetles do not overheat and burn themselves. So far, humans have not been able to create such an efficient light source. On the lower part of the insect's abdomen there are many white patches, which are actually the light-transparent parts of its shell. Inside there is a white membrane that can reflect light, so this area appears white during the day.