Page 12 - My FlipBook

I LIkE YOu!

know: I’m gorgeous . I’m strong . I’m don’t do this just for fun . They have
ready to mate! The more impressive the something important in mind . They’re
antlers, the better his chances with the looking for a mate . Fireflies aren’t flies
does (female deer) . Large antlers can at all . They’re black and brown beetles
also be used as a weapon in duels with that crawl on the ground by day, but in
other males . Towards the end of the the dark shine with a magical beauty .
winter, this beautiful headgear simply Mostly only the males can fly, while the
falls off, to be left dangling from a tree females watch the light show from the
or lying on the forest floor . It doesn’t ground and flash energetically back .
matter . In summer he’ll grow a new set Each type of firefly communicates
of antlers even bigger and more impres- through its own light version of Morse
sive than the old ones . code, which differs from others in
brightness and rhythm .

FLASHY But watch out! The females of a certain
Fireflies type of North American firefly know

foreign languages and can play a nasty
If you’ve ever seen fireflies on a balmy trick, imitating the flash patterns of
summer night, you already know how another species . In that case the foreign
fascinating these neon-green dancing male can’t expect an act of love . More
points of light can be when there are likely he’ll end up as dinner—between
hundreds in the air at a time . Fireflies the mouthparts of a greedy imposter .

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