Becky Dalton, age 11 of Ashville, North Carolina, for her question: .

Where do lightning bugs go in winter?

In winter, the lightning bugs wear disguises. Chances are you can find a few if you know what to look for and root around in the likely places. These are not adult insects with gauzy wings for flying in the air. They may be hungry larvae or sleeping chrysalises. Their chance to become flashing fireflies will come later, when they hatch into adult winged insects. This may be next summer or the following summer.

Lightning bugs, fireflies and glow worms are really beetles. True, they do not wear the usual crisp body armor, but they have beetle type wings and chewing mouth parts. They also progress through the same four life stages. However, it usually takes these soft bodied beetles two years to progress through their egg, larva and pupa stages. The egg stage lasts only a few weeks and the winged adults may live only a few days. So most of their lives are spent as larvae or pupae.

There are at least 1,500 species of this insect family Lampyridae. Most of them, including the big flashy ones, live in the tropics, where winters are as warm as summers. About 50 species live in North America, most of them in southern regions where winters are mild and summers warm and moist. A few species live farther north, where the long summers are hot and humid. All these insects must have damp surroundings at all stages of their lives. This may explain why they do not live in the dry deserts and western mountains.

The pupae hatch in early summer, then flocks of winged adults take to the air, blinking their lights. The female soon lay batches of small eggs in damp soil, in moist piles of fallen leaves or rotting logs. The eggs hatch in about three weeks and the scaley grubs begin prowling for food. They are born meat eaters and always hungry. Their menus include slugs, snails and any other insects they can catch.

Since the winters are mild, there is no need to hibernate    though they can if they wish. In fact, sooner or later they are forced to take a long sleep. After months and months of gorging themselves, the larvae grow lazy and turn into chrysalises. In this state, they sleep in the moist ground, at least through the last months of their second winter. Then they hatch into adults and the firefly cycle starts all over again.

In some species, the adults eat pollen, others devour insects,and some may not eat at all. The adults do not last very long, but new broods hatch to keep the firefly lights flashing through the summer.

Some species are wingless, though the female has the usual lamp in her tail. She lives on the ground and we call her a glow  worm. Most larvae develop their light organs early in life and a few species flash sparks among the fallen leaves. These too are called glow worms. A few species even lay eggs that glow softly in the damp dirt.