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Science Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. Science The controversial sale of 'Big John,' the world's largest Triceratops. Many fireflies protect themselves from predators with chemicals called lucibufagins. These are molecules the insects synthesize from other chemicals they eat in their diet. Lucibufagins are chemically very similar to the toxins toads exude on their skins, and while they are toxic in the right doses, they are also extremely distasteful.
Birds and other predators quickly learn to avoid fireflies. A colleague of mine once put a firefly in his mouth — and his mouth went numb for an hour! Many other insects visually mimic fireflies in order to reap the benefit of looking like something unpleasant to eat and poisonous. Fireflies appear to produce other defensive chemicals, too, some of which may contribute to their distinctive smell.
These femme fatales go on to use the lucibufagins they acquire from ingesting their severely disappointed prey to protect themselves and their eggs from predators. They quickly transfer the chemicals to their blood, and spontaneously bleed if a predator grabs them. Most fireflies are habitat specialists, using woodlands, meadows and marshes. They rely on that habitat remaining undisturbed for the year or more it takes them to complete their lifecycles.
If that habitat is disrupted during their youth, populations can be extinguished. If a population of blue ghosts is destroyed by logging or other disruption, there will be no reestablishment. Habitat destruction is therefore one of the greatest threats to fireflies. Other hazards include light pollution from artificial lights and perhaps insecticide applications for mosquito control.
There is much yet to learn about fireflies. Entomologists like me have identified about or so species in North America , but it is clear that many more species occur here.
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