Amydetinae[1]Cheguevariinae[2]Chespiritoinae[3] Cyphonocerinae Lamprohizinae[1] Lampyrinae Luciolinae Ototretinae Photurinae Psilocladinae[1] Pterotinae[1] Genera incertae sedis:[1] Anadrilus Kirsch, 1875 Araucariocladus Silveira and Mermudes, 2017 Crassitarsus Martin, 2019 Lamprigera Motschulsky, 1853 Oculogryphus Jeng, Engel, and Yang, 2007 Photoctus McDermott, 1961 Pollaclasis Newman, 1838 The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting.

They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production of light, mainly during twilight, to attract mates.

This ability to create light was then co-opted as a mating signal and, in a further development, adult female fireflies of the genus Photuris mimic the flash pattern of the Photinus beetle to trap their males as prey.

Fireflies have attracted human attention since classical antiquity; their presence has been taken to signify a wide variety of conditions in different cultures and is especially appreciated aesthetically in Japan, where parks are set aside for this specific purpose.

[6] Most fireflies are distasteful to vertebrate predators, as they contain the steroid pyrones lucibufagins, similar to the cardiotonic bufadienolides found in some poisonous toads.

[19] During a study on the genome of Aquatica leii, scientists discovered two key genes are responsible for the formation, activation, and positioning of this firefly's light organ: Alabd-B and AlUnc-4.

Early larval bioluminescence was adopted in the phylogeny of adult fireflies, and was repeatedly gained and lost before becoming fixed and retained as a mechanism of sexual communication in many species.

[14][21] Adult lampyrids have a variety of ways to communicate with mates in courtships: steady glows, flashing, and the use of chemical signals unrelated to photic systems.

[14][23] Some species, especially lightning bugs of the genera Photinus, Photuris, and Pyractomena, are distinguished by the unique courtship flash patterns emitted by flying males in search of females.

In the United States, one of the most famous sightings of fireflies blinking in unison occurs annually near Elkmont, Tennessee, in the Great Smoky Mountains during the first weeks of June.

[27] Female "femme fatale" Photuris fireflies mimic the photic signaling patterns of the smaller Photinus, attracting males to what appears to be a suitable mate, then eating them.

[29] The oldest known fossils of the Lampyridae family are Protoluciola and Flammarionella from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian ~ 99 million years ago) Burmese amber of Myanmar, which belong to the subfamily Luciolinae.

[30][31] The ancestral glow colour for the last common ancestor of all living fireflies has been inferred to be green, based on genomic analysis.

Elateridae Rhagophthalmidae Phengodidae Luciolinae Pterotinae Ototretinae Lamprohizinae Psilocladinae Amydetinae Photurinae Lampyrinae Firefly populations are thought to be declining worldwide.

While monitoring data for many regions are scarce, a growing number of anecdotal reports, coupled with several published studies from Europe and Asia, suggest that fireflies are endangered.

[40][41] Fireflies face threats including habitat loss and degradation, light pollution, pesticide use, poor water quality, invasive species, over-collection, and climate change.

Recommendations include reducing or limiting artificial light at night, restoring habitats where threatened species occur, and eliminating unnecessary pesticide use, among many others.

[58][59] In Italy, the firefly (Italian: lucciola) appears in Canto XXVI of Dante's Inferno, written in the 14th century:[60] Quante ’l villan ch’al poggio si riposa, nel tempo che colui che ’l mondo schiara la faccia sua a noi tien meno ascosa,

di tante fiamme tutta risplendea l’ottava bolgia, ... As many as the fireflies which the peasant sees in the [Tuscan] valley below, when he is resting on the hill—in the season [midsummer] when the sun hides least from us, and at the time of day [dusk] when the fly gives place to the mosquito—perhaps in the fields where he tills the ground and gathers in the grapes; with that many flames the eighth ditch [of Hell] was shining, ...