How long does a firefly live?

There are about 2000 species of fireflies in the world, distributed in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions. There are several common fireflies in China, such as black fireflies, red fireflies, window fireflies, and so on. Eggs, larvae and pupae also tend to glow at night. Adult glow has the function of attracting the opposite sex. Let's take a look at how long the life span of fireflies is.

How long does a firefly live?

Fireflies generally live for 3-7 days in the wild, but there are also people as long as 10-20 days, who die after 14 nights of brilliance. Life is short for small fireflies, but the color they bring is a beautiful summer night. For this brief "sparkle", it takes a year for fireflies to breed, from egg to larva to pupa to adult.

What food do fireflies eat?

Fireflies are carnivores, which mainly eat snails, field snails and shellfish at the larval stage. Although the larvae of fireflies are very small, they are so daring that they dare to compete with snails until they are eaten. This is all because it has a unique set of "martial arts". When the larva finds the snail, it pricks the snail with its needle-like mouth. What? It turned out that when the snail was given an "anesthetic injection", it would emit a toxin that would numb the snail, and then it would inject a digestive enzyme into the snail's meat until the snail's meat was turned into a rare and delicious gravy, and the companions would be summoned to surround the snail. Together, they inserted the needle-like mouth into the snail's meat and sucked up the gravy. After the larvae become adults, they no longer hunt, just drink some dew or collect some nectar until they starve to death.

The reason for the short life of fireflies

1. The food of adults is only water: the adults of fireflies are only water, and the way of eating is not to drink directly from the lake, but to concentrate on the evaporation of water vapor in places with high humidity in the air. By the time they hatch into adults, their mouths have deteriorated, so they can no longer get any nutrients to maintain their fragile and beautiful lives except drinking water.

2. Unable to adapt to the climate: most fireflies live in warm areas with a certain humidity, and fireflies can often be found by the river and other places. However, if preyed on by other predators, polluted rivers and dry weather, their numbers will not only be reduced, but their lifespan will also be greatly shortened. As they are picky about living areas and only like waters rich in natural resources and natural pollution-free waters, there are no fireflies at all in those places where water pollution is more serious.

3. Glowing leads to a short life span: when it comes to fireflies, many people will think of their beautiful light, which is actually their most easy-to-understand feature. Luminous behavior is an important communication signal of the same kind for fireflies. The ultimate goal is to mate and spawn and eventually reproduce. In addition, it is said that this kind of light can serve as a threat and warning to scare natural enemies. But there is no doubt that glow plays an important role in the short life of almost all nocturnal fireflies.