Editing Firefly (section)

== Evolution ==

=== Fossil history ===

The oldest known fossils of the Lampyridae family are ''Protoluciola'' and ''Flammarionella'' from the [[Late Cretaceous]] ([[Cenomanian]] ~ 99 million years ago) [[Burmese amber]] of Myanmar, which belong to the subfamily [[Luciolinae]]. The light producing organs are clearly present.<ref name="Kazantsev 2015">{{Cite journal |last=Kazantsev |first=S. V. |date=December 2015 |title=Protoluciola albertalleni gen.n., sp.n., a new Luciolinae firefly (Insecta: Coleoptera: Lampyridae) from Burmite amber |url=http://kmkjournals.com/journals/REJ/REJ_Index_Volumes/REJ_24/REJ_24_4_281_283_Kazantsev |journal=Russian Entomological Journal |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=281–283 |doi=10.15298/rusentj.24.4.02 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cai |first1=Chenyang |last2=Tihelka |first2=Erik |last3=Ballantyne |first3=Lesley |last4=Li |first4=Yan-Da |last5=Huang |first5=Diying |last6=Engel |first6=Michael S. |last7=Kundrata |first7=Robin |date=January 2024 |title=A light in the dark: a mid-Cretaceous bioluminescent firefly with specialized antennal sensory organs |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |language=en |volume=291 |issue=2030 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2024.1671 |issn=0962-8452 |pmc=11387053 |pmid=39255838|pmc-embargo-date=September 11, 2025 }}</ref> The ancestral glow colour for the last common ancestor of all living fireflies has been inferred to be green, based on [[genomics|genomic analysis]].<ref name="Oba 2020">{{Cite journal |last1=Oba |first1=Y. |last2=Konishi |first2=K. |last3=Yano |first3=D. |last4=Shibata |first4=H. |last5=Kato |first5=D. |last6=Shirai |first6=T. |date=December 2020 |title=Resurrecting the ancient glow of the fireflies |journal=[[Science Advances]] |volume=6 |issue=49 |pages=eabc5705 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abc5705 |pmc=7710365 |pmid=33268373 |bibcode=2020SciA....6.5705O}}</ref>

=== Taxonomy ===

The fireflies (including the lightning bugs) are a family, Lampyridae, of some 2,000 species within the Coleoptera. The family forms a single [[clade]], a natural phylogenetic group.<ref name=Martin2019/> The term glowworm is used for both adults and larvae of firefly species such as ''[[Lampyris noctiluca]]'', the common European glowworm, in which only the nonflying adult females glow brightly; the flying males glow weakly and intermittently.<ref name="Meyer-Rochow 2007"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.glowworms.org.uk |title=UK Glow worm survey home page}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.brc.ac.uk/irecord/glow-worm |access-date=19 July 2018 |title=Enter a glow-worm record |date=11 June 2015}}</ref> In the [[Americas]], "glow worms" are the closely related Coleopteran family [[Phengodidae]], while in New Zealand and Australia, a "glow worm" is a luminescent larva of the fungus gnat ''[[Arachnocampa]]'', within the true flies, [[Fly|Diptera]].<ref name="Meyer-Rochow 2007">{{cite journal |last=Meyer-Rochow |first=Victor Benno |title=Glowworms: a review of "Arachnocampa" spp and kin |journal=[[Luminescence (journal)|Luminescence]] |date=2007 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=251–265 |doi=10.1002/bio.955 |pmid=17285566 }}</ref>

=== Phylogeny ===

The phylogeny of the Lampyridae family, based on both phylogenetic and morphological evidence by Martin et al. 2019, is:<ref name=Martin2019 />

{{clade
|label1=[[Coleoptera]]
|1={{clade
   |label1=[[Cantharidae]], etc. 
   |1=[[File:Cantharis lateralis 85974126.jpg|80px]]
   |label2=[[Elateriformia]]
   |2={{clade
      |1=[[Elateridae]] [[File:Ampedus nigricollis.jpg|60px]]
      |sublabel2=''bioluminescent''
      |2={{clade
         |1={{clade
            |1=[[Rhagophthalmidae]]
            |2=[[Phengodidae]] [[File:Phengodes orbignyi.jpg|60px]]
            }}
         |2={{clade
            |label1='''Lampyridae'''
            |1={{clade
		       |1=[[Luciolinae]] [[File:Luciola lusitanica ♂.jpg|80px]]
		       |2={{clade
				  |1={{clade
				     |1=Pterotinae [[File:Firefly - Pterotus obscuripennis, Sierra City, California (cropped).jpg|70px]]
					 |2=[[Ototretinae]] [[File:Oculogryphus chenghoiyanae (cropped).jpg|60px]]
					 }}
     			  |2={{clade
					 |1=Lamprohizinae [[File:Lamprohiza splendidula01 (cropped).jpg|80px]]
					 |2={{clade
						|1={{clade
						   |1=Psilocladinae
						   |2={{clade
							  |1=Amydetinae
							  |2=[[Photurinae]] [[File:Photuris lucicrescens (cropped).jpg|80px]]
							  }}
						   }}
						 |2=[[Lampyrinae]] [[File:Lamprigera yunnana (cropped).jpg|60px]]
						 }}
				      }}
                   }}
				}}
             }}
		  }}
       }}
    }}
}}