Have you actually seen one of these at night lighting up with bioluminescence? Fireflies are beetles and many beetles look very similar to fireflies but don't have bioluminescence.A good example is soldier beetles.Firefly larva and a lot of other beetle larva are carnivorous and eat the eggs and larva of other insects,so you may be right in thinking that the beetle in picture might be responsible for the decrease of the pests you mentioned. I've got a couple insect field guides I can look at,if I get an I.d. on your bug, I'll get back to you.

I go to bed early so I don't see if they are lighting up, but I read an article stating that some species of firefly are out in the day and they don't light up. I scoured the internet but all I could find was that article and, on another forum, a farmer found a bunch of these in his field and asked what they were a few years ago but got no response. Almost the end of July and still no squash bugs and the bean beetles are totally gone, unlike last year when I had an infestation but none of these firefly-looking bugs.

I think I read that not all fireflies light up too.But we know they're all beetles.So why would scientists classify beetles that don't light up as fireflies? I'm guessing because they are very closely related to fireflies that have bioluminescence.Just be thankful your not infested with pests this year whatever the reason.

I am thankful but I do have some damage on my older leaves of my cucumbers and I'm wondering if it's pest damage or fungal. It would be nice to know also because if these are actually fireflies, I may need to make an effort to keep some surfaces in the garden moist in order to help them survive. It gets really dry here in August.

Update: I am not seeing these bugs anymore. My garden has been overrun by aphids, squash bugs, and other pests. I also have a ton of ladybug larvae eating each other and battling with the sugar ants who have been farming the aphids since last season. I was looking at websites featuring beneficials in Missouri, and I found a photo of a soldier beetle that looked very similar to the one I posted above. Thoughts?