How to Draw a Firefly

Description: Guess what types of bugs I've been seeing around my yard? Lightning bugs! This next tutorial was inspired from all the pretty fireflies that have been making my yard their dwellings. I don't know what it is but, for the past few weeks, I've seen some of the most unique looking moths, and other bugs that I have never seen before. Like the other night, I saw a pastel yellow and pink colored moth, as well as an extremely light blue colored moth. I don't know if it's because the Northeast is infested with moths, or because they love this environment. There must be at least fifty moths that rest on the outside windows and walls in the front of my house. Let's not talk about moths right now because that is not what this lesson is on. I'm going to show you "how to draw a firefly", step by step. I became intrigued by these bugs when one was lying upside down on my porch four nights ago. I went to go look at it the next morning, but unfortunately it was dead. I picked it up to examine it further, and what I saw was weird. I was sitting their looking for a light bulb, but I found nothing. I did some research on this bug and here is what I found out. First off, fireflies are not flies at all. Instead these interesting insects belong to the beetle family. Now because they are considered luminescent bugs, fireflies also belong to the glowworm family too. There is nearly two thousand different types of firefly species in existence today. As I studied further on these bugs, I was reading that they love warm climates around wet marshy areas. This was strange to me because, even though it gets hot here, it's really not that marshy, just wet. This explains why we always see an abundance of fireflies on the warm nights after it rains. They are so pretty when they are blinking on and off near the trees and low in the grass. Yes these bugs are pretty from far away, but up close, they are not so pretty anymore. It leaves you to wonder, “what makes them blink like a Christmas light anyway”? Well, it's the light organs that is under the belly of the bug. When the firefly takes in oxygen, special cells combined with luciferin makes the light. The main reason why these insects have luminescent abdomens, is because that is how they attract their mates. Once the firefly has mated, females will lay their eggs underground and the hatchlings will feed upon worms and slugs. Pretty gross huh? Anyway, no matter how you look at it, learning "how to draw fireflies" is an animal with great mystery. Even though they are not bugs you want to look at up close, they still bring the summer nights to life. I will be back tomorrow with more drawing fun, so make sure you come back and join me for more fun filled lessons. Peace out people!