Almost all flew two to four feet over the ground and winked on briefly every three or four seconds. As we ran about I looked without success for fem ales flashing in the grass. The flying fireflies are males and their flashes are meant to elicit a response from one of these shy ground dwelling maidens. When a male and female do get together they quite literally turn out the lights. There wasn't much s uccess that evening as the flickering continued outside my bedroom window until dawn.
Fireflies are carnivorous.
They eat other insects as well as snails, slugs, and earthworms. Some females of the larger species even imitate the light signals of their smaller cousins, a romance seeking male sometimes ending up instead as a meal. Even firefly light is remarkable. I hope that these lovely insects won't fall victim to our human abuse of the environment we share. Caleb's world would be sadly reduced without these remarkable lightning bugs.