This night walk starts at the Belas Parish Council (Praça 5 de Outubro). Among the various points of interest, we would like to highlight the search for fireflies. In a place so close to the urban environment, come and be amazed by the surprises that the night can reveal, counting on the intense light of the fireflies that we will try to find! Come along and be dazzled by these wonders right on Lisbon's doorstep.

Fireflies:

Fireflies spark nostalgia for our childhood, the memory of warm nights in fairy tales. They are mysterious insects that we know so little about...

Fireflies are insects of the order Coleoptera that belong to the family Lampyridae, a group in which, in most species, the larvae and adults produce light.

Factsheet: Perhaps because we associate them with the dark. Or perhaps because fireflies don't always have the same shape. It's just that their development isn't gradual, it's like the story of the gluttonous caterpillar that turns into a flying butterfly, both of which are the same organism. Because the young stage (or larva) of fireflies also has to undergo a metamorphosis in order to become an adult. The larva's job is to accumulate energy reserves in order to grow. In Portugal, firefly larvae feed mainly on snails and slugs (there is a species that feeds on earthworms), prey much larger than their size, but which they manage to immobilise by inoculating a paralysing poison (as spiders do). Growing up, as insects say, involves getting rid of the "shell" that covers the body (the exoskeleton) and making a bigger one to accommodate the increase in size resulting from another period of growth. When they have all grown up, one to three years will have passed and they will have made six to eight growth changes, depending on the species. This is when the larvae pupate. This is the stage of the firefly's life when the body changes to become an adult, which happens from the beginning of summer. As a general rule, adults don't grow, don't feed and die one to two weeks after reproducing. In many species of fireflies, the females look like larvae and are different from the males. The females stay close to the ground but take to the stage to light up by climbing onto a branch or the leaves of herbs. In most species, the males have wings and can fly. They are the ones who make the breeze sparkle with the perlimpimine dust of our childhood dreams.

10! is the number of species of fireflies known in Portugal.

Did you know that... if fireflies were a light bulb, they'd be on the efficient light bulb shelf?

PRICE: Children aged 6 to 10 - 8€

NOTE: Participants are asked to bring a torch. Thank you

- Firefly Watching - Natural landscapes -