HAVE U SEEN A FIREFLY? 
I have just came back from Desaru Malaysia and one of the most interesting thing I have seen is a firefly which feeds on mangrove leaves. I had a chance to see them while riding on a boat in total darkness. It was quite an awesome sight.******this are some facts i collected frm the internet :Fireflies are tiny beetles (about the size of a grain of rice) and, in the USA, are most common east of the Mississippi River, rare in the west. Different species flash different colors: green, amber, yellow. They flash to attract members of the opposite sex and to warn potential predators they taste bad. Some frogs, however, eat such large numbers of fireflies that they themselves glow. Scientific illustration courtesy of Purdue University.
That light is not a true fire because it has no flames and almost no heat. But it is a light: a cold light that only some slimes, bacteria, insects, fungi, invertebrates, fish, and such creatures can make. Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and true plants lack the ability.
The firefly is a light-making beetle. A segment of the firefly's abdomen produces the light. This segment houses special light-making cells and a network of nerves and air tubes.
The cells make light by combining oxygen with three important chemicals:
Luciferin, which is present in the cells of all organisms that make light
ATP, a chemical compound which supplies large amounts of energy to cells to do things like contract muscles or make light
Luciferase, which starts the chemicals combining and increases the speed with which they combine; it's an enzyme which acts as a catalyst.
Initially, ATP reacts with luciferase, magnesium ion, and luciferin to form an extremely high-energy, unstable chemical. The new chemical does not last long in this state. It combines with oxygen, changes to a lower-energy state, and emits light.
That's how fireflies make light.
By the way, fireflies are also called lightningbugs, which brings up the question of bugs. I asked
Tom Turpin, professor of entomology at Purdue University, why fireflies and lightningbugs are written all as one word, instead of separate words, like bed bugs or horse flies.
A lightningbug is a beetle and not a bug, because it is "not classified in the order Hemiptera [the official bug order]," says Turpin. So, it "is is written as one word." Similarly, 'firefly' is written as one word since this insect is a beetle and not a fly.
the lesson ends @ {/6:54 AM}
P6A****Starz; The Class that ROCKS! 
