Fireflies in Nichinan, Tottori, Japan

A firefly frolic

You may well be crashing the biggest party in Japan's least populous region. Each summer, fireflies turn this forest in rural Tottori Prefecture into their own glitzy nightclub. There's no telling which fireflies are the males in this shot, but they'll spend mating season trying to flicker their way into the females' hearts.

Unfortunately for them, the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long. The fireflies don’t survive long past their two-month party season in June and July. Fortunately, that's plenty of time for them to produce countless eggs, soon to hatch into larvae which will emerge from their pupae next summer and kick off the light show once again.