Imported Lizards Are Being Killed by Poisonous U.S. Fireflies

Poisonous North American fireflies are killing exotic lizards kept in zoos and as pets, according to researchers from Cornell University. As many as 20 million Americans now keep reptiles and amphibians, and many of the animals come from Africa and other parts of the world where fireflies are not native.

The deaths are caused by self-defense chemicals called lucibufagins, which are not part of the light-emitting systems, entomologist Thomas Eisner and his colleagues report in the August Journal of Chemical Ecology. Reptiles that normally live in the fireflies’ native lands know not to eat them, but the imported animals do not, and can die within a few hours after eating just one.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II