Of all summer's creatures the firefly, or lightning bug, is the most magical—and mystifying.  In the dusk its sparkings are like elfin signals.  We wonder just what are these little light-makers?  How do they live?  Are they any relation to glowworms?  Are the sparkings really signals?  If so, what do they mean? 

The answers are surprising.  For example, we think of the firefly as an aerial creature.  Yet most of its two-year life span is underground.  And with what fantastic neighbors!  Bristletails and springtails, mites and other minute soil animals of many colors in a tiny world where the earthworm is a monstrous giant.  The firefly's life cycle is a tale of the soil as well as of the air.

Here it is told by two masters: Paul M. Sears, whose lucid writing is equally enjoyable to very young and to mature readers, and Glen Rounds, whose art has brought American animal illustration to a new hight point. 

Frank A. McDermott, an outstanding expert on the chemistry of "cold light" and on the biology of fireflies and other luminous organisms, has checked this story for scientific validity. 

From the dust jacket