In the summer month, the rotting grass is a firefly. This is the beautiful mood of the fireflies given by ancient poetry.
But rather than this elegant description, I prefer to think of fireflies as the best memories of our childhood. I believe that you who had fireflies in your childhood must still remember it vividly, it is popsicles, watermelons, fans and fireflies that accompany us through that boring and fulfilling summer.
Although fireflies are the "little friends" who spent time together as a child, do you really understand it? Maybe most of the fireflies that still stay in the summer night will glow and feed on plant nectar...
Today we will take a closer look at this 'familiar stranger'! The first thing to start with is the life of a firefly, which goes through four stages: eggs, larvae, pupae and adult.
The first is the egg period, the egg stage fireflies exist in the form of round white eggs, and the egg period fireflies will already glow, like a night pearl in the night sky? These "nocturnal pearls" are commonly found in damp grass.
Then there is the larval stage, which is the longest period of time in the life of a firefly, generally from half a year to a year or so. For almost a year, juvenile fireflies will emit something that makes people stunned.
Before introducing its black history, let's get to know this little guy, the juvenile firefly looks like a caterpillar, but its body is flattened, with 6 gastropods under its abdomen. In fact, there is another point that best indicates its identity - luminescence, not only in the egg period will glow, but also in the larval stage firefly abdomen will still glow.
So, what is the black history of firefly larvae? In fact, it is its method of predation, and you would never think that the beautiful fireflies of the "light luo small fan fluttering fireflies" turned out to be a carnivore with some cruel predatory techniques in its larval stage. It usually feeds on slow-moving animals such as snails, slugs, earthworms, and freshwater snails.
After finding prey, the larvae crawl onto the prey and then insert their palate into the prey and inject it into a poisonous liquid produced in its digestive tract. In a short time, the venom breaks down the body tissues of its prey, turning it into a surimiform liquid. Finally, the larvae pass through the palate like a straw and drink it all.
This is the main task of the fireflies every day throughout the larval period, if you are lucky, there is no cruel hand of natural enemies, after 3 to 5 times of molting, the fireflies will usher in the last stage of 'insect life' - pupal stage.
Fireflies, which are about to enter the pupal stage, will burrow into the soft underground, find a suitable place to build a pupal chamber, and then begin to "pupate into butterflies".
A firefly pupa
The summer has arrived, the twilight is dark, and after a long winter, the firefly pupates out of the pupa and become a firefly in the full sense. At this time, the fireflies are still newly born, flashing and flashing, flying freely in the summer night...
However, under this beautiful scene, there is a cruel truth hidden - the fireflies have less than two weeks to live! What can I do in two weeks? For us, two weeks in a busy job pass in the blink of an eye, but for fireflies, two weeks is a lot of work.
In the last two weeks, Firefly has to accomplish one of the most important things in life – passing on the generations. On summer nights we see fireflies "flickering" in the grass, and they are courting. The "fluorescence" emitted by the fireflies' abdomen is their courtship ritual. Fluorescent light can carry different information for the same kind of people to perceive.
Usually, most of the fireflies that fly in the air at night are male fireflies, which fly around the sky, showing themselves with eye-catching fluorescence and conveying the message to the female fireflies that they want to mate.
Since female fireflies are not in the air, where are they? In fact, they are hidden in the grass, and those who have caught fireflies should know that some fireflies will lie quietly in the grass and flash. Most of these fireflies are female fireflies. What about the female fireflies lying in the grass?
In fact, they are looking for objects, female fireflies by observing the fluorescence emitted by male fireflies in the air to determine who is suitable for mating, and then emit the corresponding fluorescence to attract males to come and mate.
It turns out that the wonderful fireflies flying at night are their mating rituals, but if you look deeply, you will find that behind this "romance" is a step-by-step killing machine! This "courtship carnival" of fireflies is also a "hunting carnival" of other animals. It's not just fireflies that are attracted to fluorescence, but also their natural enemies. For example, frogs, spiders, centipedes, etc., they hide in the shadows, waiting for opportunities, hunting these fireflies who are crazy for love.
For example, the round spider, has already laid a lot of traps waiting for the fireflies to come to the door, when a firefly accidentally entangled in the cobwebs, this is the round spider will immediately pounce on it to wrap it into a "rice dumpling", this is not over, the fireflies that fall into the spider web will not die immediately, even if the fireflies will continue to glow for a period of time after death, which means that more fireflies can attract more fireflies to cast their nets.
Even more formidable creatures are the witch fireflies that live in the Americas, mimicking the fluorescence of female fireflies during courtship, and eating them when the male fireflies are attracted to them. Is it a bit like the Siren in Greek mythology, luring the crew with a beautiful song in the vast sea, causing it to hit the reef and sink into the sea?
And those fireflies who are lucky enough to survive will do one last thing - mating, when the fireflies use the traditional "back style", the male lies on the back of the female, and constantly slaps the female with two tentacles during the mating process. Soothe its restless mood. After mating, the female will immediately find a suitable place to lay eggs, and finally slowly die, which is the life of the firefly.
Everyone should have had this question, where are the fireflies? There is also an answer - the habitat of fireflies has been destroyed in large quantities, losing the environment on which they depend, so fireflies are becoming less and less common.
Yes, this is one reason, but there is another reason - lighting. That is, artificial light, today's night neon flashing, all kinds of brilliant lights fill the streets and alleys, night is more than the day. It is estimated that artificial light exists at night in 23% of the world's land mass, which means that most of the fireflies live in areas where they intersect with humans.
What effect does light have on fireflies? I believe that some people have guessed that light affects the mating of fireflies, because fireflies rely on "catching and emitting light" for mating, and the existence of artificial light just affects the judgment of fireflies on light, thus affecting the normal mating of fireflies.
Just imagine, when the last two weeks of life remain, it is already very difficult to escape the predators, coupled with the interference of artificial light may lead to: enter the human area after misjudgment, send the predator to the door, and then can not find the object...
Will the fading fireflies, the fluorescent myoman come back at night? Maybe only the lingering memories left in our minds comfort the weary us.