Afterglow: Is It Lights Out for Fireflies?

“It’s a childhood memory that many of us possess: Sitting on a front stoop as day turns to dusk, watching and waiting for the flash, flash, flash of fireflies to fill the summer night,” she says. “In the U.S. fireflies are most commonly found in the eastern half of the country, usually near ponds, streams, and other areas prone to retaining moisture.”

Ervin writes that the basic reason fireflies or lightning bugs flash is the same reason people dress up low necklines and sideburns and all the rest – for sex.

“With fireflies seemingly less common than ever before, it’s no surprise that misconceptions about them abound,” she wrote. “For those fireflies that retain the ability to emit light into adulthood, the flashing has a purpose, akin to humans getting dressed up for a night on the town.”

However, Ervin reports that long before adults begin flashing to attract the opposite sex, they do so to deter their natural enemies.

‘The most common reason given for the decline of fireflies is that suburban sprawl is eradicating wetlands and destroying their natural habitat,” she explains. “But researchers have also speculated that the amount of artificial light used by humans may be playing a role in holding down firefly populations, as ambient light inevitably interferes with their ability to find mates.”

Ervin relates that she thinks what people miss is being able to show them to their kids.

Ironically, while the long-term prognosis for fireflies looks bleak, the chemicals they use to make light are playing an increasingly important role in medical and scientific research, according to Ervin.

If fireflies ever approach distinction, it’s difficult to say what impact their absence might have on the environment and the world as a whole, according to a recent article.

Lightning bugs are actually beetles, according to one website.

So that a flasher doesn’t attract the wrong species each lightning bug has its own specific pattern. Among some species both males and females, flash but among others only the members of one sex do it.

There are more than 2,000 species of lightning bugs and the ancient Chinese sometimes captured them to be used as short-term lanterns.

The insects overwinter during the larval stage by burrowing underground and emerge in the spring.

The summer light shows that you see are performed by male lightning bugs.