Firefly

Two fireflies warding off a Green Firefly.

## Description

The Portuguese Fireflies (Luciola lusitanica) are a unique species of insect that specialise in using Stereocytes & Sensocytes to allow their Stemocytes to "flash" their yellow lights. Fireflies are commonly found in dark places and rarely, in the light. Fireflies will usually move at a normal pace around the substrate, their abdomens glowing constantly as they regularly meet and bump into other Fireflies while peacefully grazing on the nutrients on the plate. Fireflies are nutrientovores that eat nutrients the whole time from being a larva into a fully-fledged adult. Fireflies can also flash their lights red when they are timid, as they flash their lights red instantly in the sight of a Green Firefly since they are scared of its menacing looks and Devorocyte mouth, although the Green Firefly is peaceful and may accidentally look like it wants to eat one of them. Surprisingly, Fireflies are related to beetles.

## Appearance

### Adult Form

Fireflies have a dark brown body with two light-grey/white Flagellocytes (wings), and their Stemocyte abdomen). They possess a Stereocyte on their head which manages direction and partially some of the light flashes, and its Senseocyte, which senses for nearby green colours (as in the Green Firefly) and it forces the Stemocyte to glow red, a colour that the Green Firefly dislikes, and so it turns away from it. Fireflies are very smart as they can not only find food, but also protect themselves by warding off potential predators (although Green Fireflies don't usually predate on any animal). Their Stemocytes can become three colours: Red (danger), Yellow (glowing), and Black (light is dim/off). The Stemocyte would usually cycle between black and yellow, but if an interference comes along, it will make the colour red and prevent other colours from replacing it until the interference is far enough for the Firefly to not need to ward the threat away no longer.

### Larva Form

In their larva form, Fireflies have a particular oval shape with two grey Myocyte stripes and four white Phagocytes with a singular white Flagellocyte. Their Myocytes are decorative cells that give the larva a striped look to it and its Phagocytes help it to feed on the nutrients as its Flagellocyte moves the larva so it can aid the Phagocytes by pushing them into the nutrients.

## Behaviour

Fireflies behave in a calm way at most times, usually only trying to find food or bump into other Fireflies on accident, but if threatened by a Green Firefly (or any other purely green genome of other species), they will flash their Stemocyte pure red, which shows its fear and also uses it to its advantage, which will usually disorient and deter a Green Firefly, and sometimes paralyse it in place, as Green Fireflies dislike pure red colours, so Square Swimmers could survive if put in a habitat shared with Green Fireflies. This tendency to glow red is caused by its Sensocyte, which senses the "threat" and forces the Stemocyte to glow bright red, showing it so it can make creatures retreat. Since they use their red lights, they don't try to retreat, rather they have the "threat" retreat from them, as they rely on this trick to scare off Green Fireflies.

## Larva Stage

The larvae of Fireflies are usually hatched from Lipocyte eggs, and have only one mission to find and collect as much food as possible, since their environment consistently dries up with nutrients, then has a massive growth in nutrients. They may be stuck finding food for some time, depending on how many Fireflies or other nutrientovores are on the substrate. Once they gain enough food to begin metamorphosis, they give up their speed and grow a new egg, fed by the assisting Photocyte from the split Flagellocyte, and once the egg is fed enough, it will emerge into the Adult Form of the Fireflies. Its larva husk would otherwise have its Photocyte digested alive by the Secrocyte that it left behind as a byproduct, and since the Photocyte is gone and it has no means of locomotion, the husk will slowly vanish from the substrate.

## Competition

Since Fireflies cannot reproduce, they can only be spawned in and once they are, they need to get past the larva stage to able to properly compete with smarter species that also specialise in a nutrient-only diet. Fireflies will compete with other nutrientovore species, and may compete with other Fireflies if there is not enough food to go around for all the Fireflies, resulting in the smartest and luckiest surviving the competition for food during hard times. Since Fireflies, when adults are smart, they can handle the seasonal famines and growths of nutrients, unlike their larvae which may rely on luck on times to have enough nutrients to suffice during the seasonal famine.

## Trivia

* Fireflies are based off on real life Portuguese fireflies
* Fireflies are usually in substrates in the dark, where Green Fireflies don't thrive well in.
* Green Fireflies are not fireflies, but mimic them and are related to them, still being true beetles, but not true fireflies.
* FIreflies are known as glow worms or lightning bugs

## Gallery

Firefly in the dark, emitting its yellow light.A pair of Fireflies hanging around near each other.A whole colony of Fireflies in the dark.Two fireflies warding a Green Firefly away using their red lights.A Firefly Larva.A Firefly Larva beginning to metamorphose into an adult.A deformed Firefly that lost its body during metamorphosis.
## Download

Dropbox link to download, click here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvpuf8yshxon5y5/Fireflies.substrate?dl=0