Why do the bottoms of fireflies and lamprigera light up?!

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Why do the bottoms of fireflies and lamprigera light up?!

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

A proper explanation is a little above ELI5, but for the purpose of this subreddit it’s enough to know that it’s a chemical reaction between the oxygen of the air and a some chemicals in the butt of the fireflies.

Think of it as a kind of combustion, but with no fire and very little heat

Anonymous 0 Comments

Fireflies light up by letting oxygen into their butts which causes a reaction with cells known as photocytes that then glow.