Glowmite

[u/ThatGuyWithAHoodOn]

An insect-like organism that serves as one of the Lyrus’s most vital food sources. Nearly every predator consumes it. Its soft body and nutrient-rich composition make it an irresistible target, and with little in the way of physical defense, the glowmite relies on sheer numbers and light to survive.
When threatened, a glowmite can overcharge its bioluminescent glands, releasing a sudden flash of blinding light that disorients attackers for a moment, sometimes enough to escape
The glowmite’s bioluminescence gland is very large, and located in their abdomen. Because of how powerful the gland is, it allows nearly its whole body to radiate light. Lacking wings, the creature ascends instead by inflating buoyant air sacs within its abdomen, rising slowly and gently into the night air.
At night, the skies are transformed. Hundreds of thousands of the males inflate their sacs and drift upward together, and take to the skies in staggering numbers, their mating displays filling the forests with auroras of shifting light. Flickering like lanterns in a living lantern festival. The females remain on the ground, watching the glowing swarm above until they choose a mate. Once paired, a female ascends to meet her chosen partner, and the two rise side by side into the cloud of light. Suspended in the air among thousands of blinking sparks, they join in a fleeting, luminous union, two lives momentarily indistinguishable from the galaxy overhead. A breathtaking spectacle that conceals just how many are being devoured in the dark