When I was a child, I wondered why fireflies emit light

At night, fireflies can be seen flying in flashes due to the light produced by a chemical called insect luciferase in the firefly's body that interacts with oxygen. This chemical called insect luciferase initiates this reaction like a switch, and when the fireflies produce insect luciferase, the reaction begins, and the fireflies emit flashes of light.

There are many types of glowworms, and at the end of their abdomen they have a light-emitting organ that glows green. They lie dormant in the grass during the day and fly out at night. The small green light at the tail decorates the night sky like a fantasy.

No wonder some people get scared when they see it. Fireflies can emit light not only as adults, but also as eggs, larvae, and pupa. Adults have a luminous device at the end of their abdomen.

The male has two luminous apparatus and the female has one. There are light-emitting and reflective layers underneath the transparency** of the luminaire. The light-emitting layer is yellowish-white and is a protein light-emitting substance called fluorescen.

When the glowworm breathes, it oxidizes and synthesizes luciferase with the inhaled glow, and their tails begin to glow with flashes.

Other organisms that can emit light include the algae of the ocean and other insects of the firefly family, which use the enzyme luciferase to react with oxygen to emit light.

The luminescence principle of fireflies is due to the presence of a phosphorus-containing luminescent substance and a catalytic enzyme in the part of its luminous device. Fireflies will have some pores on the luminaire, and after the air is introduced from the pores, the luminescent matter will be oxidized by the catalysis of enzymes and oxygen. And then through such a mechanism, the light is emitted.

Fireflies emit light through this action. The light emitted in this way is called cold light because most of the energy is converted into light energy, and only a small part is converted into heat energy. Because the conversion of luminous quality to light energy is quite efficient, fireflies can emit light for a long time.

And the fireflies themselves can also be controlled into not performing such an effect to control whether the hair does not emit light.

The glow of fireflies is a type of bioluminescence. The principle of luminescence of fireflies is that fireflies have specialized light-emitting cells, and there are two types of chemicals in the light-emitting cells, one is called luciferin (in fireflies it is called firefly luciferin), and the other is called luciferase.

Luciferin can consume ATP under the catalysis of luciferase and react with oxygen, which produces an excited state of oxidized luciferin, which releases photons when oxidized luciferin returns from the excited state to the ground state.

Almost all of the energy released in the reaction is released in the form of light, and only a very small part is released in the form of heat, and the reaction efficiency is 95%, so the beetle will not overheat and burn. So far, humans have not been able to create such an efficient light source. [4]

There are many white patches on the lower part of the abdomen. In fact, it is the part of its carapace that is transparent to light. On the inside there is a white film that reflects light. So during the day this part appears white.

Why do fireflies emit light?

When I was a child, we often saw flickering lights on the side of the road and in the grass on summer evenings, and these lights were emitted by fireflies, so why do fireflies glow?

The sparkling fireflies that people see on summer nights are mainly the light emitted by male fireflies in search of mates.

The light emitted by fireflies varies from yellow-green to orange-red. Fireflies convey different messages by changing the color and time interval of the "light".

Male fireflies flutter in the night sky and glow with a pale green glow every second.

Female fireflies hiding in the grass respond by emitting flashes of light at second intervals when they spot a signal from a male firefly.

At this time, the male firefly knew that there was already a "beautiful woman" waiting for him.

After several times of communication between them through the "language of lights", the male fireflies follow the light emitted by the female fireflies and fly over to mate with them.

In the luminous part of the firefly, there is a phosphorus-containing luminescent substance and a catalytic enzyme. There are some pores on their luminaires, and when air enters through the pores, the luminescent matter will oxidize with oxygen through the catalysis of enzymes, and then it will emit light.

Why do fireflies emit light? Star Awareness Project

3. Why do glowing fireflies glow? What do fireflies rely on to shine?