Phengodidae

From Free net encyclopedia

{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Phengodidae | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Arthropoda | classis = Insecta | ordo = Coleoptera | familia = Phengodidae | familia_authority = LeConte, 1861 | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision = about 30 genera, see text
}}

The beetle family Phengodidae is known also as glowworm beetles or glowworms. The females and larvae have bioluminescent organs. They occur throughout the New World from extreme southern Canada to Chile.

Larval and larviform female glowworms are predators, feeding on millipedes and other arthropods occurring in soil and litter. The winged males, which are often attracted to lights at night, are short-lived and probably do not feed. Females are much larger than the males and are completely larviform. Males may be luminescent, but females and larvae have a series of luminescent organs on trunk segments which emit yellow or green light, and sometimes an additional head organ which emits red light. See railroad worms.

Note that this family is distinct from the fireflies (family Lampyridae), which may also be called "glow-worms".

[edit]