Firefly Watch Community Science

Jewels of the Night, yes; Charismatic, it Depends.

With a brilliant behind like that, no wonder lightning bugs are called “jewels of the night.” They are actually beetles, not bugs, with a head, thorax and abdomen.

One morning this week, I refrigerator-magneted a paper form to the fridge, then stepped back and glared at the sheet feeling irritated.  

Firefly Watch Observation Form, it announced. “They were lightning bugs when we were kids, weren’t they?” I asked. Fred was over at the counter peacefully cascading Cheerios into a bowl. “You know?” 

“Yeah, I guess,” he said. 

“I read it somewhere, people have gone to firefly because it is easier with only the two syllables. Light-ning-bugs, that’s three. World’s in a hurry.”

“Ummm, suppose so.”

Thinking about my aggravation later, it dawned on me that I was just being a little bit sad. My issue wasn’t what term people use to refer to lightning bugs nowadays because I actually say fireflies sometimes too, it was more about the rapid passage of time. It seems that just a few days ago it was me and my sisters, barefoot and out on the farm, chasing lightning bugs to an all-cricket chorus. Certainly, it was just yesterday that our own kids were out after dark, wild with excitement while hunting those flying specks of light with the neighbor kids. And now my son is getting married in one short week.

Wow, where does time go?  Life happens, then is gone in a flash. 

Curtains  

Yes, life is short, yet I’m hoping not to flicker out anytime soon. The lightning bug, on the other hand, only lives for two months as a fully-functioning adult, so final curtain is always right around the next evergreen. Every night for the past week, I’ve been energized by taking slow strolls in the neighborhood to observe the flying beetles with the bioluminescent behinds.

My work is community science, and for this project my efforts benefit Mass Audubon’s Firefly Watch, which is mapping lightning bug populations. The effort each night takes only ten minutes, but I also enjoy lingering outside in the night air. My neighbor ladies join me sometimes and since the fireflies are few right now, we pivot our nocturnal walks to listening to the adult barred owls who conduct call-and-response drills with their fledgings. As for the fireflies, we haven’t chased anything nor have we jarred anything yet, but we share plenty of stories about how fantastic and plentiful the fireflies were when we were kids.  

A universal childhood memory? 

In general, not everyone is a fan of insects, but lightning bugs seem to brighten the hearts of all, young and old. They enrich our lives so much, in fact, that scientists call them charismatic insects, two words I don’t believe I’ve ever heard put together before. Butterflies, aka “flowers of the sky,” are another charismatic species.

As I researched this story, I was struck at how often the writers, even the serious science writers, included at least one personal anecdote about how she or he chased lightning bugs as a kid. Could that be one of our near-universal global experiences? The price is right, for sure, and the availability not bad either since these little flashers are on the job during warm months in all continents except Antartica. While many people think all firefly species are about the same because their top-down view is so similar, there are actually many different species in the same habitats. Georgia has 50 or more species, more than any other state, according to UGA. The most common species in Georgia is Photinus pyralis, or the common eastern firefly.

This image came from an elaborate USA Today’s interactive page on fireflies published just last week.

Firefly Watch happens in four steps: 

1. Identify a location. It should be small, no larger than the area you can easily see while standing in one spot.

2. Get to know lightning bugs. They have different blinking patterns––some make quick flashes, while others give long-lasting glows, and still others use invisible chemical signals.  The hours of the day when fireflies are out varies, but it is a good bet to start looking for them at dusk and before midnight.

3. Count lightning bugs and observe flash patterns. To participate, you count the number of flashing lightning bugs over the course of 10 minutes in three 10-second periods.  

4. Submit observations into the Firefly Watch database.

Keeping things light and bright for the neighbors 

By now, I’ve completed observations six nights in a row and have only seen a few lightning bugs. However it’s been fun to search for them, especially when others join me, and I can share what I know with someone besides Fred. (My husband. He hears a lot already. Breaks are good.) I’ve kept my firefly stories light, describing various flying patterns and how the flashes are a call for love. I know some darker stuff I could tell them out there in the shadows of the night, but I don’t want to destroy our glad moods.

But for you and me, we go to the dark side. We go straight over to the Photuris branch of the firefly family tree where we meet the ladies who want rations, not relations, at close of day. When a lovesick male firefly flies near Ms. Photuris, she sinks her jaws into him and drinks his white firefly blood because she wants a special toxin in his blood. After her thirst is slaked, she devours him entirely, the head, thorax, and abdomen which, you’d have to guess, would be in lights-out mode by now. These predatory images are not one bit agreeable. To that point, it’s easy to think male fireflies would be none too agreeable to calling Photuris “charismatic.”  

Fireflies, and all insects, are declining worldwide.

If you’ve noticed there aren’t as many fireflies as there used to be, it’s not your imagination. Fireflies, like all insects, are declining worldwide. Habitat loss, pesticides, and light pollution are all major contributing factors to the problem. Residential mosquito control companies use insecticides, and even if they claim to be organic, there is no way for them to spray these toxins in a yard without also killing other insects they come in contact with, including bees, butterflies, caterpillars, ladybugs, dragonflies and other beneficial insects, along with the mosquitoes. Insecticides are usually administered via aerial spraying, which contaminates broad swathes of soil and water. High concentrations of insecticides in water and soil are harmful to fireflies in larval form and as adults.

“Do you want to live in a world where this experience is lost to your grandchildren?” —Sara Lewis, of the Firefly Specialist Group.

According to National Geographic, in the U.S. 18 firefly species now face extinction. Globally many other firefly species are considered endangered. Consider signing up for Firefly Watch, it’s been fun for me and has triggered many happy memories. I now know to look for the J flying pattern for the Photinus Pyrelis species and the zigzag pattern for the Photinus Granulatus. I’m hoping things get showier as summer progresses. 

Ways we can help fireflies and all insects.

The World Animal Fund provides ways we can help slow down the decline of firefly populations. A February 2023 report concluded: “The unfortunate truth is that humans pose the greatest threat to fireflies. These beetles need us to be better land managers in order for them to survive. We need to stop their habitats from disappearing, use less chemicals and pesticides, and stop treating insects like they aren’t crucial to the conservation of our fragile ecosystem.”

We can help by:

• Providing habitat. Set aside a part of your yard or garden where things can get a little wild. Designating a space in your yard to leave natural yard waste can help many insects and wildlife. Fireflies spend 1-2 years, or 95 percent of their lives, in larvae stage on the ground.

• Avoid pesticide use, which can kill fireflies and their prey or degrade habitat.

• Turn off your outdoor lights at night, especially during the summer firefly season which lasts only about a month in early summer.

• Contribute to our collective firefly knowledge by doing community science.

• Spread the word and let others know about fireflies and their needs.

  —Information from The Xerces Society, UGA’s Extension office, the World Animal Fund and the National Recreation and Park Association.

Coming up in mid-July: Old Home Week.

In mid-July, I’ll go retro and give an update on some of my ongoing back-burner community science projects of the past six months. One of those is FrogWatch. I’m regularly involved in FrogWatch, still a big fan of amphibians, however things are not working out like I envisioned back in February when Fred and I did our FrogWatch training. More later.

I’ll leave you with the summer music of an ensemble of green treefrogs I heard a few days ago beside a pond. I was out hiking all by my lonesome. Quiet afternoon. Peace. Then, out of nowhere, just like a conductor had raised her baton to signal “begin,” these frogs croaked out a cluck-filled cacophony that lasted for about 15 seconds. Then, sudden silence again. Not another peep.

Frogs. They’re a wonder.