A soft-bodied beetle with luminescent organs in the abdomen, especially the larva-like wingless female which emits light to attract the flying male.
Families Lampyridae (in particular the European Lampyris noctiluca) and Phengodidae (in particular the American Zarhipis integripennis)
Example sentencesExamples
- Although there are no fireflies in Britain, maybe I should also spend the summer searching for a glow-worm over here - people are already organising walks for 2003 to hunt for them.
- At first, I thought it must have been some sort of mutant glow-worm!
- That night, after dark, we descended to a cutaway in a hillside where we could view the tiny lights of glow-worms, a first for all of us.
- The best way to explore them and see the unique blue light of the glow-worms clinging to them is on a black-water rafting trip.
- While some locals have ascribed the lights to UFOs, others blamed swarms of fireflies or even glow-worms.