Blue ghost firefly
The blue ghost firefly is a small brown beetle that glows in the dark. Most fireflies blink, but the blue ghost males glow with a steady light as they drift slowly over the forest floor. From far away the light looks bluish white, like little ghosts.
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Fun facts
Up close the light is bright green, but from a distance it looks bluish white.
The female has no wings and cannot fly. She stays looking like a larva her whole life and glows from 4 to 9 spots on her body.
The males fly just a little above the ground, looking for glowing females.
The mother guards her 20 to 30 eggs until she dies, and the tiny babies glow too.
A moon lander made by a space company is named Blue Ghost after this firefly.
Most asked questions about Blue ghost firefly
?Where can you see blue ghost fireflies?
In damp forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains in the United States, for example in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
?Why is it called the blue ghost?
Because from a distance its steady glow looks bluish white, like a little ghost floating over the ground.
?Do blue ghost fireflies blink?
No. Unlike most fireflies, the males glow with a steady light instead of flashing.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Phausis reticulata
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Lampyridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Lampyridae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Blue ghost
Where the facts come from
- Phausis reticulata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Aggyrolemnoixytes. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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