Fireflies (lightning bugs) are declining globally due to light pollution that disrupts their bioluminescent mating signals, with direct welfare implications.
Firefly welfare is primarily threatened by light pollution disrupting their ability to find mates - a fundamental biological need. Females unable to identify appropriate male flashes experience reproductive failure as an indirect welfare consequence. The disruption of mating behavior by artificial light means fireflies in illuminated areas are essentially unable to reproduce successfully - a population-level welfare harm that compounds into local extinction. Individual welfare considerations include the neurological disruption of animals evolved for darkness spending their adult lives in artificially lit environments. Firefly habitat protection requires not just land conservation but the preservation of darkness - an environmental quality increasingly rare near human settlements.