There are a good number of insects that have the word ‘fire’ in their common name. But while fireflies and fire bugs are so-called for their colouration rather than a love of a burn-up, and fire ants for their formidable sting, fire beetles, aka fire chasing beetles, from the genus Melanophila, really deliver according to their moniker.
These coleopterans lay their eggs in the bark of burnt trees, drawn to their target by the infrared radiation of fires. They’re so frenzied in their push to get down to reproductive business that they have been known to bite firefighters getting in their way.
Fire beetles, though often the ‘first responders’, are far from the only species from their vast order to seek opportunity in the flames.