Photurinae

Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Cladus: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Cladus: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Coleopterida
Ordo: Coleoptera
Subordo: Polyphaga
Infraordo: Elateriformia
Superfamilia: Elateroidea
Familia: Lampyridae
Subfamilia: Photurinae
Genera: Bicellonycha - Photuris

The Photurinae are a subfamily of fireflies (Lampyridae). They contain many of the well-known North American species, such as the Pennsylvania Firefly (Photuris pennsylvanica) and the Common Eastern Firefly (P. pyralis), state insects of Pennsylvania and Tennessee, respectively. They are among the "flashing" (as opposed to continuous-glow) fireflies known as "lightning bugs" in North America. Though they are not too distantly related to the flashing fireflies in the Lampyrinae, as the most basal lineages of that subfamily do not produce light at all the Photurinae's flashing signals seem to be convergent evolution.[1]

The genus Photuris is often called "femme fatale fireflies", due to the females' habit of imitating other "lightning bugs'" flashes, to attract, kill and eat them. Their prey includes such unrelated Lampyrinae like Photinus (rover fireflies) or Pyractomena.[1]

Genera include:

* Bicellonycha Motschulsky, 1853
* Photuris

Footnotes

1. ^ a b Stanger-Hall et al. (2007)

References

* Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F.; Lloyd, James E. & Hillis, David M. (2007): Phylogeny of North American fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae): Implications for the evolution of light signals. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 45(1): 33-49. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.05.013 (HTML abstract)