The

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

family Phengodidae is known also as glowworm beetles, whose

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

e are known as glowworms. The females and

e have

bioluminescent Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by living organisms. It is a form of chemiluminescence. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms including some b ...

organs. They occur throughout the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

from extreme southern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

. The recently recognized members of the Phengodidae, the Cydistinae, are found in Western Asia. The family Rhagophthalmidae, an Old World group, used to be included in the Phengodidae. Larval and larviform female glowworms are

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill t ...

s, feeding on

millipede Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...

s and other

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

s occurring in

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ...

and

litter Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. Litter can also be used as a verb; to litter means to drop and leave objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups ...

. 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, as in railroad worms. This family is distinct from the fireflies (family

Lampyridae The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

), which may also be called "glow-worms" in its larval stage. According to a few recent studies, Phengodidae might possibly include (or be

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to) the long-lipped beetles, which are primarily differentiated from phengodids by the unusual modifications of their mouthparts; long-lipped beetles were treated as a family Telegeusidae but are most recently treated as a subfamily within the family Omethidae.ROZA, André Silva; CONSTANTIN, Robert; MERMUDES, José Ricardo Miras. ''Pseudotelegeusis meloi'' sp. nov., the first Telegeusinae from Peru (Coleoptera: Omethidae, Telegeusinae). European Journal of Taxonomy, .l. n. 580, nov. 2019. ISSN 2118-9773. Available at: . Date accessed: 06 dec. 2019. doi:https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2019.580. Glowworm (4213020277)

Genera

* '' Acladocera'' * '' Adendrocera'' * '' Brasilocerus'' * ''

Cenophengus ''Cenophengus'' is a genus of glowworm beetles in the family Phengodidae The beetle family Phengodidae is known also as glowworm beetles, whose larvae are known as glowworms. The females and larvae have bioluminescent organs. They occur throu ...

'' * '' Cephalophrixothorax'' * '' Cydistus'' * '' Decamastinocerus'' * '' Distremocephalus'' * '' Eurymastinocerus'' * '' Euryognathus'' * '' Euryopa'' * '' Howdenia'' * '' Mastinocerus'' * '' Mastinomorphus'' * '' Mastinowittmerus'' * '' Microcydistus'' * '' Microphengodes'' * '' Neophengus'' * '' Nephromma'' * '' Oxymastinocerus'' * '' Paramastinocerus'' * '' Paraptorthodius'' * '' Penicillophorus'' * '' Phengodes'' * '' Phrixothrix'' * '' Pseudomastinocerus'' * '' Pseudophengodes'' * '' Ptorthodiellus'' * '' Ptorthodius'' * '' Spangleriella'' * '' Steneuryopa'' * '' Stenocladius'' * '' Stenophrixothrix'' * '' Taximastinocerus'' * '' Zarhipis''

References

* Sean T. O'Keefe, "Phengodidae", in

Ross H. Arnett, Jr. Ross Harold Arnett Jr. (April 13, 1919 – July 16, 1999) was an American entomologist noted for his studies of beetles, and as founder of the ''Coleopterist's Bulletin''. Born in Medina, New York, he was a star student at Cornell University, wher ...

and

Michael C. Thomas Michael Charles Thomas (May 5, 1948 – October 14, 2019) was an American entomologist who co-authored the book series '' American Beetles''. Born in Miami, Florida, Thomas graduated from the University of South Florida in 1970 with a Bachelor ...

, ''

American Beetles ''American Beetles'' is the single most comprehensive description of the beetles of North America north of the tropical area of Mexico. It was started by Ross H. Arnett, Jr. as an update of his classic ''The Beetles of the United States''; along w ...

'' (CRC Press, 2002), vol. 2

External links

Phengodidae
i
J. F. Lawrence, A. M. Hastings, M. J. Dallwitz, T. A. Paine and E. J. Zurcher (2000 onwards). Elateriformia (Coleoptera): descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval for families and sub-families.

on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site {{Taxonbar, from=Q690737 Bioluminescent insects Beetle families Beetles of North America Beetles of South America Insects of Central America