The humidity and heat felt like mid-summer on a recent hot and muggy June evening. I looked beyond the deck in the backyard, and intermittent flickers of light near the rose bushes lit up the grass. I panned the area; there were flashes of light high, low, here, there, and everywhere. I soon realized the fireflies were out; they thrive in hot weather and live in temperate and tropical places around the world.
Fireflies bring greetings of summer. Happy summer to you fireflies, Glow On!
I remember catching fireflies growing up as a child. Of course, during that time, we called the glow-at-night insects, lightning bugs.
Fireflies have nothing to do with fire or lightning, but they do produce light, especially at night when they’re most active. An enzyme in the insect’s abdomen helps generate a glow or light. Imagine an insect with a light bulb for a belly. Unlike a light bulb, 100 percent of a firefly’s energy produces light without producing any heat.
Something so small brought us so much fun in the quiet evenings of summer. Barefooted, we chased them in the dewy grass and warm pebbled sand.
The light flashes in trees, grass, shrubs, and everywhere was a firefly-twinkling extravaganza in the summers, especially away from the city lights. Believe it or not, people have mistakenly reported firefly phosphorescence swarms for UFOs.
Like other children, I chased and captured the insects in Mason or other empty jars in the pre-inky nights and sealed them with hole-filled lids.
It was a long time before I learned that a firefly or lightning bug is neither a fly nor a bug.
Fireflies are beetles.
Why not call the insect a fire or lightning beetle? The name lightning beetle doesn’t sound as appealing or enchanting to me. Fly, bug, or beetle children and adults continue to enjoy the small, paper clip-size insects.
Like other beetles, fireflies have hardened forewings. These hardened wings open for flight and provide balance freeing the hindwings for flight. This beetle’s ability to produce light makes it Bioluminescence, a living organism that produces or emits light.
Not all species of firefly flash; some use pheromones to communicate.
The flickering light shows are not for little boys, girls, or adults’ amusement but to find mating partners and ward off predators. Each specie has its own lighting sequence and signal. The male and female reciprocate signals when on the hunt for love.
In the world of fireflies, the Big Dipper isn’t a constellation but a common backyard specie of lightning bugs.
Another of the more than 2,000 species of fireflies is the Synchronous firefly. This species is one of 19 found in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park near Cherokee, NC, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. These fireflies synchronize their flicker or flash patterns. Between late May and early June, their light-show mating rituals are observable in the Elkmont section of the park.
The park conducts lotteries for firefly enthusiasts to reserve parking and witness the sensational event of nature. Lottery participants from around the world pay an application fee, and winners pay the balance of the cost to receive parking passes to see the phenomenon.
My backyard view will suffice for now.
Be well.