“一闪一闪亮晶晶，满天都是小星星。”你小时候有没有抓过萤火虫玩？静谧的夜里，萤火虫的小灯笼就像天上的星星那样闪耀。那时候我们都以为萤火虫会发光一定是种魔法。那么，它真正的发光原理是什么呢？赶快读读下面的文章、寻找答案吧！

Memories of childhood include many things, the most spectacular of which may be hundreds of fireflies flickering over the fields covered by an evening mist.
Fireflies seem almost magical with their ability to produce light as they fly effortlessly above the grassy fields.

But it is not magic which creates the luminescence. The glow of the firefly is made by a chemical reaction within their bodies. A chemical called luciferin produces the glow when an enzyme called luciferase is mixed with it. Oxygen is required for this reaction and is supplied by a special opening in the abdomen of the fireflies' body. The lightning bug, as this little insect is popularly called, can control the intensity of the flash by varying the amount of oxygen mixed with the luciferase.

Most light forms we are familiar with produce heat. However the firefly has a very efficient means of producing light because no heat comes from the light it emits. This phenomenon of light produced without heat is called luminescence. If living organisms, such as lightning bugs, plankton in sea, or other creatures and plants, produce light, it is called bioluminescence. The light colors of fireflies can also vary by species and can be yellow, green, orange, or red. Some types of lightning bugs can produce two different colors of light.

Almost 2000 different species of fireflies have been discovered, most in the tropics. Biologists have studied them extensively, but we still don't know all there is to know about these fascinating insects.

luciferin: 荧光素

luciferase: 荧光素酶

enzyme: 酵

abdomen: 下腹部

luminescence:（无热的）发光

bioluminescence: 生物发光

plankton: 浮游生物

（英语点津Annabel编辑）