Fireflies

We are blessed to own a family home on an island in Maine. It is an old sea captain’s house that belonged to a great great great member of the family and has been lovingly passed down to its current caretakers. It’s a place I go to escape. To turn back the clock. To breathe deeply. I have a very vivid memory of a time a few years back when we had all headed in from the front porch as it got dark to play games or watch TV. Suddenly my daughter groaned “I left my camera on the front porch”.  The groan was due to the fact that is gets dark in Maine. Really dark. So dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face dark. There are no street lights and we have no outside lights at the front of the house. 

We decided we would go and retrieve the camera together. What greeted us when we stepped onto the porch  was amazing.  Bursts of lights and flashes, as if from a hundred different cameras, made me feel like a superstar on the Red Carpet. I think we both gasped and immediately shouted to those inside to “get out here” or something like that. The field across the dirt road was filled with fireflies and we watched their show for what seemed like hours.

It was a wonderful memory and I always look forward to the first week in July when fireflies will return. Fireflies are actually not flies at all but rather beetles. In order to be considered a firefly, or lightning bug, you have to glow as a baby, or larvae. Hence the term glow worm. Some fireflies glow as a baby but not as an adult. ( Not unlike some child TV stars.) Fireflies will spend the majority of their lives – two to three years- as hungry larvae, eating worms, slugs and snails. They don’t typically eat much during the two to three weeks they spend as adults. There are over 125 species of fireflies in the United States and they are found around the world, with the exception of Antarctica. The series of flashes is specific to a certain species. Once you can identify the pattern of lights you can determine which lighting bug you have. It is the males that do all the signaling (why am I not surprised?). The females are usually waiting in the grass and once they see a mate that like they may give a quick flash to lead him to her location. The one exception is the female of the  Photuris versicolor complex who mimics the flashing of her amorous sisters and when the males come to visit she eats them.  Ugh. She sometimes will even chomp away during mating. Makes the Black Widow look tame.

One of the biggest problems faced by fireflies is light pollution. Today over 99% of the population in America and Europe live under what scientists call “skyglow”.  This artificial light pollution interrupts the natural rhythm of all kinds of creatures, including fireflies. Fireflies, or lightning bugs, can be adversely affected by “progress” as habitats are destroyed. Use of pesticides is also a contributor to decline in numbers. 

One of these warm summer nights I hope you will go outside and look for the fireflies. And enjoy their light show and love song while you still can.