Photo of the Day 453

Beetle's Light Tracks, Jamaica, 1962

Photograph by Paul A. Zahl

Dual tracks of light from luminous spots, one on each side of the thorax, chronicle the movements of a click beetle on a leaf in Jamaica. Unlike the hovering, twinkling firefly, Pyrophorus beetles glow for several seconds then fly like a comet. To make this image, the photographer followed a time exposure with a flash.

(Photo shot on assignment for "Fireflies, Wing-Borne Lamps of the Summer Night," July 1962, National Geographic magazine)