What you re calling lightning bugs i m assuming are any of a bunch of species of fireflies right.
What is a lightning bug look like.
Lighntning bug larvae look like sowbugs which are not even insects.
Lightning bug larvae one of which is shown at the right have sickle shaped mandibles with which they can inject a kind of chemical that paralyzes their prey and helps digest it.
Some adult soldier beetles resemble adult lightning bugs while sowbugs or pillbugs look like lightning bug larvae.
It has a dark colored soft body with brownish black wing covers edged with a light yellow to yellowish.
Ah this is a good question.
Description of a lightning bug an adult lightning bug photinus spp is a winged beetle that measures 7 16 to 9 16 inch long.
That means that lightning bugs are actually a type of beetle.
Both fireflies and sowbugs have oval segmented bodies.
You might be thinking that lightning bugs don t look like the types of beetles you ve seen before.
They re actually the largest group of animals on earth.
Adult lightning bugs who can live for several months probably feed on plant nectar.
The lampyridae are a family of insects in the beetle order coleoptera with more than 2 000 described species.
Fireflies produce a cold light with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies.
Some sowbugs are called pillbugs or roly polies because they roll up into balls when threatened.
A sowbug is actually a land dwelling crustacean with a multiple segmented body about to inch long.
That s not surprising since there are more than 350 000 known species of beetles.
Several larvae have been seen attacking large prey together.