7/4/2022: Celebrating the Fourth of July with fire””flies””

The 4th of July sticks out in my memory as the best time of the year for fireflies, and I have many lovely memories of running up and down the neighborhood sidewalk, net in hand, catching as many as I could after the fireworks had wrapped up.

Though fireflies have not been bred in captivity (to my knowledge), a nifty doppelganger has been: Schultesia lampyridiformis, the firefly mimic. Though they don’t glow, the adults are eerily similar to the semi-predatory fireflies in the genus Photuris. While Photuris aren’t readily encountered due to their tree-top habitat preferences, every once in a while I will stumble across one here in Michigan and immediately mistake it for a loose Schultesia. The disguise is just that good, even if adult female Schultesia lampyridiformis do trend larger than Photuris. Based on the uncanny resemblance to Michigan’s species, I would imagine the roach is an even better duplicate of the Photuris species with which it shares its South American habitat.

The reason for this deception is simple: fireflies tend to be distasteful and straight-up toxic to predators, which don’t tend to hunt them during their flashing displays and thus only recognize the non-lit firefly. By looking like something predators have learned to avoid eating, the firefly mimic will also be avoided even if it’s not toxic.

Among all the novel and whimsically colored roaches that continue to pop up these days, we should all be extremely grateful that such a quirky and unique species as Schultesia lampyridiformis has been available to enthusiasts for such a long time.

Thanks for reading! For those reading this on the 4th of July, any order inquiries referencing this blog post and timestamped for the 4th of July will receive a free starter colony of Schultesia lampyridiformis with their next order!

-Kyle