

You would choose the simulationist answer if you focus more on the fictional game world and consider the rules to be a simplified abstraction of this that you can augment with "reality" as needed. The simulationist answer to this question is probably "yes." Real world fire beetles can control the degree of their luminosity, so it'd be a reasonable extension that giant ones do too.


You would choose the gamist answer if you desire a rules-first/RAW playstyle where the rules determine the physics of your game world. The gamist answer to this question is "no." The game rules are all that create the abilities and their operation, and the rules don't say it can be suppressed. The answer to questions like this always ends up depending entirely on your playstyle.
