[3] It is found in North America in the Eastern USA, including Florida and Texas.

The wing covers, or elytra, are dark, with wide, light-colored side margins.

[7] The species is named as an honorific for Mr. Carl Cook, who had collected the holotype male and other specimens in Carilhope, Kentucky, 11-VII-1946.

Several years later Lloyd (1966) [9] published an overview of Photinus in USA, and wrote the name as "Photinus cooki" (i.e. altering the ending to a single "i" as "cooki"), perhaps considering it as a correction; but per nomenclatural regulations in ICZN 31.1, the original spelling of "cookii" is admissible and therefore it is subsequently retained.

Beetles such as P. cookii go through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.