227. Black Firefly

Sadly these spiffy beetles are  nonluminescent beetles , so despite their name they do not fly around at night producing delightful bursts of light from their backsides. They are active during the day, another departure from what I always believed about fireflies. This species, Ellychnia hatchi is relatively common in the pacific northwest.  

The larvae live in rotting logs and feed on a variety of invertebrates, including earthworms, millipedes, spiders and other larvae. All larvae of the family Lampyridae have light emitting cells--I guess this means digging around rotting stumps at night to see if they glow!  Another oddity of this family is that their blood is poisonous and as adults it oozes from the base of their wing covers as a defense mechanism. 

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