Big Dipper Firefly

• comportamientoIn some populations it synchronises its flashes with nearby males, producing coordinated collective displays whose exact purpose is still under study.
• As it flies, the male traces a luminous J every five to seven seconds: hence its name, the big dipper firefly, after the constellation.
• It gives off light at all four stages of its life, the egg included, and not only for mating: it advertises that it carries lucibufagins, steroids that make it inedible.
• Females of the genus Photuris mimic this species' flash to lure the males in and eat them, thereby stealing the lucibufagins they cannot make themselves.
• The larva is a predator: it hunts snails, slugs and earthworms, injecting digestive enzymes through hollow jaws, and takes one or two years to develop.
• The adult barely feeds, and lives from a few days to two months. Light pollution interferes directly with its courtship signals.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat & environment

Damp meadows, woodland edges, gardens and the margins of lakes and streams in the eastern and central United States; the larvae live buried in moist soil and leaf litter

Litter / clutch size

About 500 eggs per female

Sources consulted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photinus_pyralis