14 Fun Facts About Fireflies

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14 Fun Facts About Fireflies - by Sarah Zielinski/ Insects and Spiders/ Smithsonian.com

Photinus pyralis, a species of firefly found in the eastern United States (via Terry Priest / wikimedia commons)


Richard

 

[MuranoJo]

Very interesting and thanks for posting this. Haven't seen a firefly since I was about 9 and moved from the KS & MO areas.

 

[Patri]

We see them every late spring/summer when it is hot and humid. A favorite part of the season.

 

[csxjohn]

sorry, wrong thread

 

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Mexican Farmers Using Fireflies to Save Forest - by Lulu Orozco/ Living/ The Modesto Bee/ modbee.com



"Tourist camping is bringing enough income to eliminate the need for logging.

Family cooperative now sells out tourist spots weeks in advance during three-month firefly season.

NANACAMILPA, Mexico

In the village of Nanacamilpa, tiny fireflies are helping save the towering pine and fir trees on the outskirts of the megalopolis of Mexico City.

Thousands of them light up a magical spectacle at dusk in the old-growth forests on reserves like the Piedra Canteada park, about 45 miles east of Mexico’s sprawling capital city.

Piedra Canteada in Tlaxcala state isn’t a government-run park, but a rural cooperative that has managed to emerge from poverty and dependence on logging with the help of the fireflies..."

Fireflies seeking mates light up in synchronized bursts as photographers take long-exposure pictures, inside Piedra Canteada, a tourist camp cooperatively owned by 42 local families, inside an old-growth forest near the town of Nanacamilpa, Tlaxcala state, Mexico. Rebecca Blackwell Associated Press



Richard

 

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Are Fireflies Flickering Out? - By Sara Lewis/ CNN/ cnn.com

"(CNN) We're well past the Fourth of July, but my dreams are still illuminated by the spectacles of two summertime icons: fireworks and fireflies. Strikingly juxtaposed, one light show explodes boisterously, so full of crackle and boom, while the other sparkles in eerie silence.
Each year our firework displays seem bigger and more spectacular. But many firefly populations seem to be flickering out.

Fireflies! For centuries, their beauty has inspired wonder and delight. Why do these creatures seem so magical? Maybe it's the way they instantly transport us back to once-upon-a-time summer evenings spent chasing their silent sparks across the lawn. Maybe it's the way fireflies' resplendent displays can transform our everyday landscapes into places ethereal and otherworldly...

Editors Note: Sara Lewis is a professor of evolutionary ecology at Tufts University, and author of Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies (2016, Princeton University Press). The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers..."


Richard