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Sticker of Pennsylvania firefly
Bug card No. 1039 of 1,500

Pennsylvania firefly

Photuris pennsylvanica
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsBeetlesPonds, rivers and shores6 legs

The Pennsylvania firefly is a flat black beetle with yellow edges and two bright red spots behind its head. The end of its tail glows greenish yellow at night. It flashes in a special dot-dash pattern, like a secret code.

Lives in
Eastern United States, especially wetlands in Delaware and Maryland
Length
0.8 to 1.1 cm (0.31 to 0.43 in)
Top speed
about 2.9 km/h (1.8 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting, it just glows.
What does it eat?
It hunts insects and other small animals like land snails and earthworms. The females even trick and eat fireflies of other kinds.
For real!Photo of Pennsylvania firefly
Picture by Gould363. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Pennsylvania firefly about 1.1 cm long (0.43 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 130 secondsmoves 73 times its own body length every second

How big is Pennsylvania firefly compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

In 1974 it became the official state insect of Pennsylvania, thanks to a class of elementary school children who campaigned for it.

2

The children wrote letters, collected names on petitions and handed out bumper stickers.

3

The females copy the flash code of other firefly kinds to lure their males close, and then eat them.

4

Its glowing larva is called a glowworm.

you asked

Most asked questions about Pennsylvania firefly

?Why do fireflies glow?

They make light in their tail end to send flash messages to each other. This firefly flashes a dot-dash pattern.

?What does the Pennsylvania firefly eat?

Insects, land snails and earthworms. The females even eat other fireflies.

?How did the Pennsylvania firefly become a state insect?

School children in Pennsylvania campaigned for it, and in 1974 it was made the official state insect.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Photuris pennsylvanica
Named by
De Geer
Group
Beetles
Family
Lampyridae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Lampyridae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Lightning bug, Dot-dash firefly, Glowworm

Where the facts come from

  1. Photuris pensylvanica (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Gould363. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

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