fire beetle

noun

1. any of numerous click beetles of the genus Pyrophorus, of tropical America, having luminous reddish or greenish spots on the body.

Word History and Origins

Origin of fire beetle¹

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

When the fire beetle larvae hatch the following summer, they can feed on the charred wood.

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In some cases fire beetles have been drawn to other hot sites, including factories and even a football game held in a stadium where lots of the spectators were smoking cigarettes.

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When a huge fire consumed an oil tank near the town of Coalinga, huge numbers of fire beetles began to swarm toward it.

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Newspaper reports of the time estimated that millions of fire beetles converged on Coalinga and remained for several days after the fire was extinguished.

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The nervous system of the fire beetle has a difficult engineering task to extract this tiny signal and use it to trigger migratory behavior.

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