firefly

1. (Northern US, Western US, Florida) Any beetle of the family Lampyridae, which exhibit bioluminescence during twilight.Examples: "2000, Exploring Life Science, 2: Bats—Cave Life, Marshall Cavendish, page 96, Fireflies are the best-known insects that produce light. […] Many fireflies use their light to communicate, particularly at mating time when males and females have to get together."; "The luciferins are different in different species and today both the luciferin and luciferase in the firefly are available in the crystalline form."; "Various other luciferase genes, especially the firefly luciferase gene, are also used for the study of gene regulation.[…]The classic use of bioluminescence, however, is the use of a luciferin-luciferase mixture from fireflies as an assay for ATP."Synonyms: beetleFloridaNorthern-USUSWestern