Photinus carolinus fireflies light up a trail in the Great Smoky Mountains. Photograph by Radim Schreiber / FireflyExperience.org.
So excited to announce that we just published the first-ever comprehensive review about the threats facing fireflies around the globe!
In this article we also describe several things we all can do to give fireflies a brighter future. You can read our article here (we’re tremendously grateful to BioScience for making this Editor’s Choice & freely available).
I’m also delighted to announce my upcoming 1-year sabbatic leave from teaching at Tufts University, starting in May 2020. I’m looking forward to spending more time working on several firefly conservation initiatives, including serving as co-chair for the IUCN Firefly Specialist Group and working with my colleagues at Fireflyers International.
In the meantime, you might enjoy this great article in The Guardian summarizing the work that we & many others have been doing to keep the firefly magic alive!
Earth’s biodiversity is rapidly disappearing, with an estimated 1 million animal and plant species currently threatened with extinction. Fighting to save species, habitats, and ecosystems from extinction using an evidence-based approach has been the central mission of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 1948. Last week we had a unique opportunity to raise awareness about firefly diversity, to start identifying those firefly species most threatened by extinction, and to take positive action to conserve them.
We landed in Abu Dhabi, where our IUCN Firefly Specialist Group had been invited to meet with leaders of other Specialist Groups. For decades, these groups have been focused not only on charismatic wildlife like lions and leopards, pangolins and polar bears, but also on frogs and fungi, seahorses and seagrass. We were so honored to bring fireflies to this conservation forum for the first time! Over four intense and productive days, we shared ideas, challenges and opportunities with 300 volunteer scientists and species conservation experts all passionately dedicated to conserving Earth’s biodiversity. It was educational, exhilarating, and exhausting – and also very hot (we were encouraged not to go outside because it felt like 128ºF one day)!
IUCN Red List categories help identify threatened firefly species
“We call on all people, especially young people, to make a stand and stand up for all species.”
The Abu Dhabi Call for Global Species Conservation Action, 2019
Which fireflies are fading out & how can we save them?
Going forward, our Firefly Specialist Group will apply evidence-based science to identify which fireflies are most at-risk by assembling what we already know about each species’ biology, ecology, changes in population size, and geographic range. Then we can protect species that fall into IUCN Red List threatened categories by developing and implementing conservation action plans.
A great reminder that we’ll need many different approaches – including science – to ensure the rich heritage of Earth’s biodiversity gets passed on to future generations!
Your can read the full Abu Dhabi Call for Global Species Conservation Action here.
Next we traveled to Malaysia, where I was once again fortunate to see some exciting firefly education and conservation projects in action. I’m excited to share a few with you!
Conserving urban green space: Bukit Kiara, a former rubber plantation turned urban park that lies smack dab in the middle of Kuala Lumpur. Along freshwater springs, biking, and walking paths the regenerating forest supports a healthy population of giant glow-worms (Lamprigera species). On our walk we found not only two gigantic wingless females (left-hand photo below), but also nearly a dozen glowing larvae moving rapidly across the forest floor as they searched for prey (middle photo). Females’ inability to fly severely limits the dispersal distance of these (and other) glow-worms, thus making them especially vulnerable to habitat fragmentation and loss due to encroaching urban development. By serving as a flagship species, these fireflies could help the advocacy group Friends of Bukit Kiara and other stakeholders convince the government to conserve this urban green oasis.
“The fireflies, twinkling among leaves, make the stars wonder.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Well-managed firefly tourism: The Malaysian Nature Society empowers local communities by developing and sharing best practices for sustainable firefly tourism through their Firefly Kommunti, a network of firefly tour operators, nature guides and conservationists. This grass-roots initiative helps safeguard firefly populations while providing stable economic benefits for local communities. We visited Kuala Selangor Firefly Park in Kampung Kuantan, where standing oarsman take tourists along the mangrove river in traditional wooden sampans to see display trees sparkling with synchronous Pteroptyx tener fireflies. To restore firefly habitat in areas where riverside vegetation has been cleared, river protectors in the Inspirasi Kawa youth group have replanted saplings of berembang trees (Sonneratia caseolaris), favored by these synchronous fireflies for their spectacular courtship displays.
All the collaborative projects I witnessed – bringing together local NGOs, community members, industry, and conservationists – gave me real hope that we can work together to keep firefly magic alive!
While visiting Thailand and peninsular Malaysia this month, I got to see many exciting firefly education and conservation initiatives. Here’s a glimpse of some conservation action happening right now in Thailand:
Winding down to the sea, the Chao Phraya River curls around the unspoiled island of Bang Kachao, an area known as the green lung of Bangkok. Although mere minutes from downtown, Bang Kachao is home to a surprisingly robust population of the synchronous firefly Pteroptyxmalaccae, whose males take up perches in particular display trees and all flash together in unison to attract females. My colleague Dr. Anchana Thancharoen has established a firefly education center that trains local volunteers to survey firefly populations along a raised bike path through the mangrove forest. Unlike in many other places, these particular fireflies seem unperturbed by the bright lights that illuminate the path – even some trees completely bathed in artificial light have fireflies. Perhaps this population has somehow managed to adapt to such high ambient light. Yet I wonder – without real darkness giving visual contrast to their flashes, can these males still manage to attract females?
Situated within the Phrom Yothi Military Camp in Thailand’s Prachinburi Province, Firefly Land hosts the terrestrial firefly Asymmetricata circumdata. Many tourists come to see their impressive mating displays on weekends. The government is working to protect the fireflies while still allowing people to enjoy the show. They recently installed a fence that prevents visitors from tromping through the fireflies’ habitat, and constructed a raised walkway leading to a covered viewing platform. They even turn off the street lights during the nightly courtship period!
Hey, surprise! Some adult fireflies never.even.light.up 😳.
Yeah, I know it sounds weird. Yet based on shared ancestry (including their bioluminescent larvae), these so-called “dark” fireflies are authentic card-carrying members of the family Lampyridae. Common from coast to coast, each spring they quickly dominate the iNaturalist observations that show up in our Fireflies of the USA and Canada project.
Winter fireflies range 6-16 mm long
One of my personal favorite creatures happens to be the winter firefly, Ellychnia (ee-lick-ne-ah) corrusca, a species complex that’s widespread across eastern North America from Florida to Ontario. (In all, there are 12+ species in the genus Ellychnia, including several species found just on the west coast – reference below).
Easy to recognize, our eastern Ellychnia corrusca adults sport oval-shaped bodies, entirely dark wing covers (no pale margins), and a distinctive color pattern on their pronotum: a big central black spot is edged with red and enclosed within two pale parentheses.
Winter fireflies earn their common name from the fact that their adults can survive sub-freezing temperatures. Each fall in New England they gather on particular trees – they seem to frequent the same trees year after year – where they wedge themselves into grooves and hunker down to spend the winter. And they are decidedly hardy – in Massachusetts, Jen Rooney and I did a mark-recapture study and found 90% overwintering survival!
Last May this pair stayed together on my window screen for 17 hours.
In early spring, just when the maple trees begin flowering, winter fireflies start crawling up tree trunks. As temperatures rise, they begin flying through forested habitats in search of mates. Pairs mate in tail-to-tail position, then the female flies off to lay her eggs.
Like all fireflies, Ellychnia larvae are carnivorous. Rarely seen, they live and hunt within decaying wood. Hatching out in early summer, these larvae will spend the next 16 months eating and growing. Not until late summer of their second year will they transform into adults, which gather again on trees to overwinter.
WIthout any lanterns, distinguishing between an Ellychnia female and a male requires a pretty close look at the underside of their abdomen. In females (below right), the last segment is triangular with small notch ; in males (below left), this segment is rounded and unnotched.
Personally, I don’t even care that they don’t light up – I love greeting these dark fireflies each spring! After a long winter, they bring a welcome promise of warm summer nights & lights ahead. So keep your eyes peeled and enjoy these unusual fireflies!
Sometimes our summer nights are ablaze with silent sparks, while other years we might barely see a flash in the exact same spot. What gives? A recent study provides some insight into what drives these fluctuations, and it reminds us to take the long view.
These flashy adults are the just reward for having survived many months during their larval stage.
Keep in mind that the flashy adult represents just a tiny fraction of a firefly’s life cycle. Before that, they spent up to two years living underground in a juvenile larval stage. During this time they are eating machines, growing steadily as long as they have access to their prey – mainly earthworms, snails, and slugs. Only if they manage to survive predators, competitors and climatic conditions will they eventually emerge into an adult firefly.
Fireflies spend many months being very cute in this larval stage
The study:
Firefly Watch observations gave info on firefly abundance across all species
What was their goal? Tracy Evans and her colleagues (see full citation below) decided to see if they could predict changes in adult firefly abundance across different U.S. locations using data on weather conditions during juvenile development.
What did they do? They took data gathered by citizen scientists who participated in Firefly Watch between 2008 and 2016 (only total firefly counts were used in this study). They combined this with information from NOAA on monthly temperature, precipitation (rain & snowfall) and soil moisture for each location.
Weather conditions before adult emergence had an impact on firefly abundance.
What did they discover? Weather conditions during juvenile development had a small but significant effect on the abundance of adult fireflies. In particular, adult abundance increased when soil moisture was high during development, and decreased when soil moisture was low. Precipitation also mattered: for 20 months before adult emergence, both too much and too little precipitation reduced firefly abundance. Very high maximum temperatures during the previous winter and spring reduced abundance.
What does this mean? Of course different firefly species will have different requirements, but this study reveals some interesting general patterns. Fireflies seem to thrive when there’s sufficient soil moisture, and when there’s just enough precipitation – not too much and not too little during their juvenile stages.
Let’s face it. Every single lightningbug out there is desperately trying to pass on its genes to the next firefly generation. But some female glow-worms are really dedicated mothers, so I think they deserve a special shout-out today.
Blue ghost females shine like tiny jewels
Like other glow-worms, females of the Blue Ghost firefly are born wingless, so they can only dream of flying. Instead, they’re destined to spend their nights crawling around the leaf litter, shining from tiny glow spots, hoping to attract a mate. However, because they’re freed from the hefty demands of flight, glow-worm females can channel all their resources into making lots of eggs – like the female pictured above!
The happy couple
After she has mated, the Blue Ghost female lays a batch of about 30 eggs down in the leaf litter. Then she curls her body, guarding her eggs and glowing protectively above them until she dies.
This egg-guarding behavior is highly unusual for fireflies. Although she won’t live to see her offspring hatch (that will take about a month), she can die happy knowing she’s given her offspring the best possible start in life!
So Happy Mother’s Day to all the Blue Ghost mamas!
Egg-guarding by a blue ghost female firefly
Learn more about female glow-worms in Silent Sparks Chapter 5: Dreams of Flying.
You can read our article about courtship and mating behavior in Blue Ghost fireflies here.
Bright nights are making it hard for glow-worms to find a mate (female Lampyris noctiluca; photo by John Tyler)
Glow-worms & fireflies are uniquely susceptible to light pollution because our bright nights interfere with their ability to find mates. Fiona Benson’s poem beautifully captures the urgency of female glow-worm – “come find me – it is time – and almost dawn’ – and the male’s dilemma:
“all night he looks for her in petrol stations villages and homesteads, the city’s neon signs: where are you – it is time – and almost dawn.”
Love Poem, Lampyridae (Glowworms) by Fiona Benson
The female born again with little changed except she has no mouth and may not eat, except she has this urge to climb, and a light she must raise and twist; the male born again with little changed except he has no mouth, except he has this urge to search, and wings – oh she must twist and turn her tail’s green fire like bait, its little stab of brightness in the night, and he must search with wings through troubled air to find her pinhole lure, its single, green, seducing star …. All night she signals him in: come find me – it is time – and almost dawn; all night he looks for her in petrol stations villages and homesteads, the city’s neon signs: where are you – it is time – and almost dawn….
Once were humans wandered in the lanes, led astray by fairies, foxfire, who found their stranger selves and brought them home
Now the dark is drowned, but some things you can only find beyond the light, and it is time and almost dawn and love, my love, there is no finding then.
Published in The Guardian, part of Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry collection celebrating the beauty of a vanishing insect world.
As a filmmaker, I’ve had many grand experiences of nature: 8 days of floating down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, every second bringing a new vision of beauty; flying over the Amazonian watershed, trees so thick you couldn’t see the ground but the sun glistened beneath the trees because water entirely covered the forest floor. And then there was Zanzibar….
Ever wish you could understand what the fireflies are saying? Well, you now can!
The fireflies you’ll see most often in the eastern United States belong to one of the 34+ species of Photinus lightningbugs. These familiar fireflies fill our summer evenings with delight – they’re easy to catch because they fly at a leisurely pace, low above the ground. During summer months, different species make brief appearances, each with a mating season that lasts only a few weeks. Different Photinus species also start their courtship flashing at different times of night: certain species court just at dusk, while others wait until full darkness.
Silent Sparks 