Fireflies

Somehow one night, the topic of lightning bugs came up with the kids. I had never seen lightning bugs down here, but it isn't very rural where we live, so I wasn't sure if Florida has lightning bugs or not. But a couple of weeks ago, we were driving home after dark and a bug hit our windshield and left a glowing spot, so we got our hopes up.

A few nights later, Rob came back from Mako's bedtime walk and annouced he'd seen fireflies. The next day he hyped up the kids and Caleb went out with him armed with a jar. They did catch some and we put what they caught in our butterfly cage, but what they caught was NOT lightning bugs!

Here is Caleb asleep next to his "fireflies".

What they caught are called eyed click beetles. Their bottoms do not glow, those two eye spots do the glowing.

If you mess with them they don't show off their lights, they play dead, so I colored in what they look like lit up:They don't really blink, it's more a steady burn and brighter than regular lightning bugs I think.

It turns out we have seen these bugs before, but not in a fascinating sort of way, in a "There is an ALIEN BUG with GLOW IN THE DARK EYES in the bathroom!" sort of way. Too bad we didn't know they are harmless...as adults. As larva they are called wireworms and they are a garden pest - they eat roots. What I read said they may live underground for up to 10 years, so maybe that explains why we don't see them every year.