The word for animals that make their own light is called bioluminescence.
Nobody really knows how the fireflies glow but they know that its a chemical reaction.
The males fly around attracting the females by flashing at them, the females will then flash back.
There are other animals that make their own light. Scorpions glow under UV light but nobody knows what they use their light for but scientists think it could have been a accidental by-product. Female Angler fish use their antenna to hunt, by luring in their prey with their bioluminescent antenna.
In the deeper, darker parts of the ocean, the light will attract smaller fish and when close enough the Angler fish will strike. The Angler fish is named because 'Angling' is another name for 'fishing'. there was confusion for a short time about male Angler fish, scientists wondered whether or not there were any males, but discovered tiny males clinging onto females feeding off them until reproduction takes place.
Some millipedes glow in the dark, they use their glow to tell predators to go away.
There is also another bioluminescent sea creature called the cookie cutter shark (also known as the cigar shark for the black band round the sharks neck), which will take cookie sized bite out of larger fish, whales, dolphins, Dugongs, seals, nuclear submarines and even humans and great white sharks! They take a bite by suctioning the flesh with their sticky lips biting with their teeth and rotating there body round 360 degrees. They are the smallest species of shark, with the biggest teeth. When they loose their teeth they loose them in rows. Only 10 have ever been caught because in day they hide in the the bottom of the sea and in the night comes up to the surface to feed on its unprepared prey, the prey is unprepared because the the belly of the shark is bioluminescent which makes it camouflaged by the light, so that the prey cannot see it.
Here is my diagram of a firefly:
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