CATDOLL : CATDOLL: What do adult fireflies eat? (Insect Notes on Fireflies)

1. Do fireflies like to eat leaves? How many leaves do they eat at a time?

Fireflies are carnivorous insects that do not eat leaves. Fireflies are active at night, and their eggs, larvae, and pupae are often able to glow. The glow of adults can attract the opposite sex. The larvae prey on snails and small insects, and prefer to live in moist, warm places with lush vegetation. Firefly larvae are divided into aquatic and terrestrial. Larvae generally need 6 metamorphosis before entering the pupal stage. Larvae like to eat snails and crustaceans. After catching prey, they will first anesthetize it and then inject digestive fluid into its body to break down the meat.

2. What do fireflies like to eat?

Larvae: Firefly larvae are carnivorous, and the larvae of terrestrial fireflies mostly eat some smaller snails.

Adult: After metamorphosis into adults, most species of fireflies hardly eat or drink, and often only eat dew, honeydew or pollen and nectar; however, in South America, a few species of firefly adults will glow and prey on other types of fireflies, or small phototactic insects.

Additional information:

The general name for fireflies, which have about 2,000 species worldwide and are distributed in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions. According to statistics from several Chinese experts, there are about 100 species that have been discovered, and with the undiscovered species, there are more than 150 species in total. They glow at night and can be divided into two types: aquatic and terrestrial.

The body is small to medium, long and flat, with soft body wall and elytra. The pronotum is flat and often covers the head. The head is narrow. The eyes are semispherical, and the eyes of males are often larger than those of females. The abdomen has 7 to 8 segments, and there is a light organ at the bottom of the end. The yellow-green fluorescence is generated by the reaction of luciferin in the body and luciferase.

Fireflies are divided into two categories according to their living environment: terrestrial and aquatic. The former accounts for the majority. Terrestrial fireflies mostly live in places with high shade, lush vegetation, and high relative humidity, while aquatic fireflies have higher requirements for the environment, and the water cannot be polluted or light polluted.

3. What do you eat when you catch fireflies?

Fireflies are carnivorous when they are larvae, and their food includes snails, slugs, snails, earthworms, etc.

After transforming into adults, fireflies almost never eat or drink, and only consume dew and nectar, eventually starving themselves to death. Only a few adult fireflies will prey on small insects or other types of fireflies.

When firefly larvae find prey such as snails, they will first spray anesthetic toxins with the needles in their mouths. After the prey is anesthetized, they will inject a digestive enzyme to break the food into a thin and soft gravy, and then suck the juice with their mouths.

4. Are fireflies pests?

Fireflies are beneficial insects

1. Fireflies feed on pests such as snails. Snails like to eat tender vegetable sprouts, and fireflies like to eat snails.

2. Fireflies are one of the indicators of environmental quality. The place where they live must have fresh air and pure water.

firefly

Firefly (English: Firefly) is also known as night light, Jingtian, Ru Yiyao, Yezhao, Liuying, Xiaozhu, Yaoye, etc. It belongs to the Lampyridae family of the order Coleoptera. It is a small beetle. Because its tail can emit fluorescence, it is called firefly. There are nearly 2,000 species of insects with luminous tails. The more common ones in my country include black fireflies, Jihong fireflies, and window-chested fireflies.

Diet and predation

The larvae of aquatic fireflies eat snails, shellfish and small aquatic animals, while the larvae of terrestrial fireflies feed on snails, clams and bats. Some species will prey on small animals such as maggots and insects.

Many people have studied its predation behavior and found that the snail's gastropod secretes a kind of mucus, which leaves traces wherever it crawls, and the terrestrial firefly larvae can use their sense of smell to detect snails.

During the hunting process, the firefly first climbs onto the snail's shell, grabs it tightly with three pairs of legs, and firmly attaches its tail to the snail's shell. Then it uses its needle-shaped mandibles to attack the snail's tentacles and injects anesthetic fluid until the snail loses consciousness.

Then it secretes digestive juice on the snail meat, and uses its upper jaw to clamp the meat so that the digestive juice can fully break down the meat into flowing meat pulp, which is then sucked into its stomach.

After eating, some fireflies use their tails to clean their bodies. Firefly larvae can survive for several days or even a month without food after eating once. Aquatic firefly larvae need to complete the hunting process in the water, and then drag the prey to the shore to slowly enjoy it.

Most adult species of fireflies only drink water or eat pollen and nectar, or use the fat stored during the larval stage, but female adults of the genus Photuris can also prey. They mainly catch male adults of fireflies of other genera or other species of the same genus. It is the only genus discovered whose adults have predatory habits.

There are 12 species of fireflies in the genus Photuris that can catch 2-8 prey species respectively, and the most powerful hunter is Photuris vesicolor. It can catch 11 prey species, which can be called the "predator" among fireflies.

Their hunting behavior is called aggressive mimicry in entomology, that is, female insects of a certain species imitate the glow of female insects of other species to lure their male insects to approach and then prey on them.

At the same time, some people found that among the prey species, there were more Photinus species, because this kind of food is extremely beneficial to the offspring of Photuris and genus. Studies have shown that when they eat this food, they will produce a substance called Lucibufagin in their bodies. This substance is poisonous and can prevent their eggs and larvae from being harmed by some natural enemies.

5. Are fireflies vegetarians?

Fireflies are definitely not vegetarians. Fireflies are divided into two major categories based on their living environment: terrestrial and aquatic, with the former accounting for the majority. Terrestrial firefly larvae mostly live in places with high shade, lush herbaceous vegetation, and high relative humidity, while aquatic fireflies have different ecological niches for each stage; the pupal stage is spent near water.

Adults are divided into males and females. They live in open waters above the water and on plants near the water, and their eggs are laid on the shore.