日南市的萤火虫，日本鸟取县 Fireflies in Nichinan, Tottori, Japan (© north-tail/Getty Images Plus)

日南市的萤火虫，日本鸟取县 Fireflies in Nichinan, Tottori, Japan (© north-tail/Getty Images Plus)

A firefly frolic

You might be crashing the biggest party in Japan's least populous region. Each summer, fireflies turn this forest in rural Tottori prefecture into their own glitzy nightclub. There's no telling which fireflies are the males in this shot, but be assured they'll spend mating season trying to flicker their way into the females' hearts.

The buzzkill here is that fireflies' heyday each June and July amounts to their entire two-month adult lives—so when the rave dies, the flies shortly follow. Fortunately, that's plenty of time for the reveling bugs to produce countless eggs, soon to hatch into larvae who'll emerge from their pupae next summer and kick off the light show once again.

萤火虫嬉戏

你可能会毁了日本人口最少地区最大的派对。每年夏天，萤火虫都会把托托里县乡村的这片森林变成自己耀眼的夜总会。目前还不清楚哪只萤火虫是这张照片中的雄性萤火虫，但可以肯定的是，它们会在交配的季节里试图进入雌性萤火虫的心脏。

这里最有趣的是，萤火虫每年6月和7月的全盛期相当于它们整整两个月的成虫生活，所以当它们死去时，它们很快就会跟着死去。幸运的是，这是足够的时间，狂欢的虫子产生无数的卵，很快孵化成幼虫谁将出现在他们的蛹明年夏天，并启动灯光表演再次。