Fireflies (family Lampyridae), also known as lightning bugs, are nocturnal, luminous beetles. This name comes from the fact that some species as adults emit flashes of light to attract mates, using special light-emitting organs in the abdomen. The chemical controlling the light emission, luciferase, is of scientific interest, and genes for producing it have been spliced into many different organisms.
The flashing and flying pattern that fireflies use is distinct for each species.
Many species of lampyrid beetles do not glow as adults, but they all glow as larvae. The larvae of fireflies are generally known as glowworms (but see Phengodidae). The function of glowing in the larvae is the subject of speculation, since it is clearly not for mating. It may be protective since the usual conformation is two eye-spot like glowing patches.
There are more than 2000 species of firefly, found in temperate and tropical environments around the world.
Lightning may appear as a jagged streak, as a bright sheet, or in rare cases, as a glowing red ball.
Initially, a bolt of lightning carrying a negative charge darts from one storm cloud to another or from a storm cloud to the ground, leaving the bottom of the cloud with a positive charge.
In response, a second bolt (reverse lightning) shoots in the opposite direction (from the other storm cloud or the ground) as the mass of negative charges on it moves back to neutralize the positive charge on the bottom of the first cloud.
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