Douglas fir glow-worm
The Douglas fir glow-worm is a firefly from the west coast of North America. The female has no wings and looks like a big larva, and she glows in the dark. The male is smaller, can fly and does not glow at all.
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Fun facts
The female is about three times as long as the male.
Its larvae are black with white rings between the body parts, and they glow too.
The larvae often glow brightly while they eat.
A larva can go up to three months without food.
It has a special part on its tail end that it uses to clean slug slime off itself.
Most asked questions about Douglas fir glow-worm
?Does the Douglas fir glow-worm glow?
The females and the larvae glow, but the males do not.
?What does the Douglas fir glow-worm eat?
Its larvae eat slugs and snails.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pterotus obscuripennis
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Lampyridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Lampyridae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Douglas fir glowworm
Where the facts come from
- Pterotus obscuripennis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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