Firefly
popularly, a comprehensive name for any small insect which flies and is luminous. They belong to the Lampyridæ and the Elateridæ. The Fulgora lanternaria, or lantern fly, a homopterous insect, is too large to be called a firefly. The glowworm (Lampyris noctiluca) is also excluded, because the luminous sex, the female one, only crawls. In the case of several Lampyri in hot countries, the female, like the male flies.
The firefly of the S. of Europe is Lampyris italica, that of this country L. canadensis. An East Indian species may be seen in myriads during the rainy reason glancing round trees. The firefly of South America is one of the Elateridæ elaters, or Pyrophorus noctilucus.