How many lumens does one typical american firefly put out?

Hi,  yosamigo-ga !

The answer will depend on which of the 170 species of American firefly
you mean! But Enchanted Learning at:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/insects/beetles/Fireflyprintout.shtml

says that:

?Firefly or Lightning Bug
Photinus pyralis 	

The Pyralis firefly (also known as the lightning bug) ... is the most
common firefly in the USA.
...

The brightness of a single firefly is 1/40 of a candle.?


A lumen is defined here:

http://www.theledlight.com/lumens.html

?... a foot-candle is how bright the light is one foot away from the
source.....A LUMEN is equal to one foot-candle falling on one square
foot of area.?


So the Pyralis firefly emits 1/40th of a lumen.


Other sites of interest:

http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/980626.Turpin.fireflies.html

In the United States there are more than 170 species of fireflies;
worldwide there are more than 1,900 known species, and they are found
on every continent except Antarctica. Each species of firefly is
different..

...different species even have different colors of light. "For
example, the genus Photinus have a yellow flash, Photuris have a green
flash, and Pyractomena have an amber flash. Part of the fun is
learning to distinguish the different types of flashes..."

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question554.htm

The wavelength of light given off is between 510 and 670 nanometers
(pale yellow to reddish green color).

http://www.byteland.org/naturalist/dubois.htm

If you want to kill a lot of fireflies you can try this experiment by
Terry Lynch. Note that he says: ?I recommend using Photinus pyralis or
any other Photinid as these fireflies are easy to collect and have
large lanterns.?


Thank you for an intriguing question.


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