Tag Archives: India

2024 Events

  • May 16 – New Canaan Land Trust, CT: Firefly talk & walk
  • September 8 – Henry Ferguson Museum, CT

2023 Events

  • May 9 – Prairie Research Institute/U. Illinois Campaign-Urbana
  • May 2 – Texas Master Gardeners, Keynote presentation
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  • April 27– Environmental Studies Program @ Tufts University, Protecting the Jewels of the Night: Firefly Life, Sex & Death

2022 Events

  • March 23 – Master Gardeners, Ohio State
  • April – In Defense of Plants Podcast: Fireflies & Plants
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  • April 11– Iowa State Entomologists
  • April 19 – What Matters to Me, Tufts University Alumni
  • June 8 @ 7 pm ET, Manship Artists Residency, Gloucester Massachusetts
  • June 16 – Conservation Keynote at 2022 International Firefly Symposium, Gaia, Portugalslide again
  • July 22 – Firefly Conservation: Opportunities and Challenges invited speaker at Fireflies, Ecology, and Environment webinar hosted by EMPRI (Environmental Management & Policy Research Institute), Bengaluru, India
  • October 20 – Firefly Conservation- Preserving the Jewels of the Night @ the Appalachian Mountain Club’s See the Dark Festival, Mediwisa Lodge, Greenville Maine
Only fireflies and stars light up the night in Maine’s famed 100-Mile Wilderness (photo by Dan Perlman)

2021 Events

  • February – The Show about Science Podcast: Firebeetles!
  • April 13 – Rochester Academy of Science
  • July 1 – The Wondrous World of Fireflies hosted by The Xerces Society
  • July 3 & 4 – World Firefly Day 2021 (Fireflyers International’s YouTube channel)
  • July 5 – Earth Matters podcast, Business Radio BFM 89.9, Malaysia
  • July 23 – Festival de las Luciérnagas México, nanosapiens Facebook live)
  • July – Atlas Obscura podcast
  • August –  ologies with Alie Ward podcast: Sparklebutt-ology!

2020 Events

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  • October 8 – Species in Peril Webinar: Flora, Fishes, and Fireflies. 7:30 – 9:00 pm EST, hosted by New Mexico BioPark Society & University of New Mexico. Free, registration required.
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2019 Events

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  • July 16 – Firefly Ecology & Conservation – Malaysia Nature Society,  Kuala Lumpur
  • July 17 – The Wondrous World of Fireflies – Kampang Kuantan Firefly Park, Malaysia
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  • September 21 – 2019 Bugfest! @ North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh. Daily Planet Theater 1:30 pmmuseum_facade-1October 6 –  International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Group Leaders Meeting, Abu Dhabi.

2018 Events

2017 Events

  • April 23 – Keynote address at International Firefly Symposium, Taipei Taiwan
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  • May 2 – Firefly talk, Okinawa Japan
  • May 11 – First Annual Charles E. Roth Lecture, Concord Massachusetts
  • June 16  – Arc of Appalachia Firefly Talk & Walk, Cincinnati Friends Meeting House & Grounds, Ohio
  • June 17 –  Firefly Talk @ Paxton Theater, followed by dinner & firefly viewing @ Arc of Appalachia’s Highlands Nature Sanctuary, Bainbridge Ohio
  • June 21 –  Talk & Walk, 5th Annual PA Firefly Festival, Kellettville PA
  • July 23 – Firefly Talk & Walk, Lincoln Land Conservation Trust, MA
  • July 29 – Silent Sparks Talk & Firefly hike, Northwest Park & Nature Center Windsor CT

2016 Events & Firefly Walks

  • May 22 – Banquet address at International NO Scientific Conference, Sendai Japan
  • May 26 – Firefly talk, Kyoto Japan
  • June 12 – Boston Museum of Science, Current Science & Technology Stage – Firefly Chat with Don Salvatore @ 12.30, Firefly Talk @ 2.30 pm
  • June 13 – Harvard Arnold Arboretum, Boston MA — Firefly Talk & Book-signing  @ 7 pm,  followed by Firefly Walk @ 8.30 (with special guest Don Salvatore of Firefly Watch)
  • June 28 – Brooklyn Bird Club, NYC: Firefly Talk  & Book-signing @ 7 pm @ Brooklyn Public Library, followed by Firefly Walk in Prospect Park
  • July 15 – Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA @ 7 pm
  • August 4 – OMSI Science Pub, McMenamins Mission Theater,  Portland OR @ 7 pm
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Finding Heaven – India’s Monsoon Fireflies

From Param and Shikha Singh, via The Untourists –

At the onset of the monsoons in early June, we traveled to a small village near Sangamner in rural Maharashtra. We went to Purushwadi, a tiny village 1000 m above mean sea level, based only on some promises we’d heard. During this season, this valley was said to transform into a heaven of fireflies at night. As it turned out, these promises and more  were delivered!

Our trip was arranged by Grassroutes (more info below). The journey to Purushwadi was beautiful, though at one point we had to cross a river via a narrow, rusty bridge. I was scared that our car would get scratched, but luckily it was just wide enough. In the village, Grassroutes runs small tent accommodations with clean toilets. We shared meals with a village family in their hut, and tasting the pure village food was wonderful: dal, farm fresh sabzi, (vegetable) , and rotis made of pearl millet (bajra) flour.

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photo-from-purushwani

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A Very Lonely Firefly

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Eric Carle 2From Jay, a software engineer in Bangalore:

Recently I was startled to find a lonely firefly wandering around my Bangalore apartment. My children had never seen a firefly! But I grew up in a town called Payangadi in Kerala, South India. In the 1980’s electricity was scarce and most nights we had no power. In my memory there used to be trees so brilliantly lit up with fireflies, they looked like Christmas trees. Mostly these fireflies appeared just after the rains, when the leaves were still moist. I’d sit and watch them through the window for hours.