On lightning bugs, aka, fireflies.

There’s so much more to lightning bugs than you could ever imagine. 

How does a glowing bug get away with not being eaten? Like, I’m right here! Go ahead, eat me! Lighting up is a warning sign. Lucibufagin is a naturally occurring steroid that some species of lightning bugs produce and native predators of insects have evolved to know this. Eat one that does have it and it dissolves and destroys the digestive system and death occurs from steroid poisoning. Not all of them have it but insect predators don’t want to take that chance. 

Each specie also has its own distinctive blink which they use for attracting mates but also for deception by mimicking other lightning bugs blink to attract and eat them for a meal AND to increase their own level of Lucibufagin making them even more toxic if ingested. 

Imagine how many people have fed lightning bugs to frogs to watch them blink from the inside? It’s potentially a last meal for a reptile or bird.