Firefly It’s a quiet, warm summer evening with no human in sight for miles in the woods. As the sun sets, tiny flashes of light start to flicker throughout the trees. At first there’s just a few, but soon hundreds of blinking lights are floating in the forest. Fireflies have come out for the evening.

Fireflies are found in temperate and tropical regions on every continent except Antarctica. They live throughout the United States in parks, meadows, gardens, and woodland edges.

Fireflies are disappearing! Find out why on Firefly.org. Information on fireflies & lightning bugs including reasons on their decline, plus firefly pictures, facts, and how to catch them.

Introduction Fireflies are charismatic beetles with important cultural, biological, biomedical and economic importance. Often associated with summer nights, firefly recreational viewing occurs globally. While interest in fireflies is growing, fireflies themselves are declining due to pesticide use, light pollution and habitat loss and degradation.

Fireflies, also called lightning bugs or glowworms, are a group of insects, many of which are bioluminescent, possessing special light-producing organs on the underside of their abdomen. The light results from a biochemical reaction involving the enzyme firefly luciferase, which acts on the compound firefly luciferin in the presence of oxygen. Although they are called ‘flies,’ these ...