Lightning bugs

 At dusk, we looked up into the woodlot and saw hundreds of lighting bugs.

When I was a boy, I heard fireflies mainly in the North. The usage is changing. The scholars at the University of Georgia call these wondrous creatures fireflies, although they’re flying beetles in family Lampyridae. 

We have more than 50 species in Georgia. Some synchronize their flashing. Some cast a blue light.

The light shows are to attract mates. Typically, males do the flying, while females flash back from a perch. Eggs take about three weeks to hatch. The larvae are notable slayers of slugs. The larvae grow and enter a pupal stage that involves a casing like a cocoon. The adults feed on nectar and are pollinators.

I’m pretty sure the lightning bugs in our woodlot were the most common variety, Photina pyralis. The specimens I saw had a yellow outline around their black wings and a shield covering the back of its head.