The Probert Encyclopaedia of Nature

FIREFLY

Firefly is a popular name for winged insects possessing much luminosity. Except the lantern-fly, the fireflies are all coleopterous, and are members of two nearly allied families, the Elateridae or skipjacks, and Lampyridae, to which the glowworm belongs. The British glow-worm haa too little luminosity to entitle it to the name of firefly, but the Lampyris italica, and Lampyris corusca of Canada are allied to it. True fireflies are found only in the warmer regions of the earth. The Slater or Pyrophorus noctilucus of South America and the West Indies is one of the most brilliant, giving out its light from two eye-like tubercles on the thorax. Their light is so powerful that small print may be read by it, and in Haiti, Jamaica and elsewhere they are sometimes used to give light for domestic purposes, eight or ten confined in a phial emitting sufficient light to enable a person to write.
Research Firefly