Notes from a consulting firefly scientist
As you watch this piece, premiered at the Bucknell Spring 2024 Dance Concert, be on the lookout for:
- Childlike wonder – with over 2,400 described species on every continent (except Antarctica), fireflies have inspired generations of humans around the globe.
2. Wings – despite their name, fireflies are not flies. Nor are they bugs (aka lightningbugs). They are beetles. This means that while they have two pairs of wings like all other insects, the outer pair has been modified into hardened armor, called “elytra.” The elytra open like gull-wing doors on a car to reveal the transparent flight wings underneath, as seen in the student drawing below of a common eastern firefly readying for takeoff.
3. Showy signals – Most of the flashes that you see in the summer are males that emit species-specific flash patterns as they search for females. When a female sees a flash she likes, she will reply to that male with a flash of her own. They flash back and forth until the male locates the female and they mate. Research has shown that female fireflies are choosy and they prefer bigger and brighter flashes. This means that for males – light is all about showing off!
4. Flashing and glowing – While we typically think about fireflies flashing, there are many species that emit steady glows. My favorite glowing species is the blue ghost firefly, Phausis reticulata, whose late-spring glows in the darkest parts of southeastern forests are hauntingly beautiful. Recently a blue ghost population was discovered in West Virginia. I hope that we will find a population in Pennsylvania one day!
5. Synchronicity – Males of some firefly species will come together in large aggregations and synchronize their flashes to attract females. In North America, this is most famous from the synchronizing species Photinus carolinus , whose summer displays attract 1000s of tourists to Congaree and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, and the PA Firefly Festival in Allegheny National Forest each year. This species synchronizes based on sight lines – first one firefly will start, then another will join, then another, until the entire forest is pulsing with light. For other species, synchronicity is an emergent property – it happens periodically, like sudden periods of silence in a crowded room.
6. Delightful chaos – When I am in the field studying fireflies the diversity of signals can be overwhelming. Often multiple species are signaling in the same habitat at the same time and each individual firefly starts its species-specific pattern at a different time with its own flight path. While it first appears as chaos, after observing individual’s patterns relative to the whole, the flashes start to make sense to me, creating a larger picture that makes me pause, breathe, and appreciate nature’s wonders.
7. Fireflies are under threat – Approximately 1 in 5 North American firefly species is under threat of extinction. However, this is likely an underestimate – over half of North American species are data deficient, meaning that we don’t know enough to make conclusions about their status. If you would like to help conserve fireflies for future generations, please check out resources provided by the Xerces Society and consider contributing firefly sighting information to their Firefly Atlas project to help us learn more!
Many thanks to Kelly Knox and the Dancers, Heath Hansum, Sierra Pete, Bob Gainer, inspiration from artist Ibiyinka Alao, and funding from the National Science Foundation and a Mellon Confounding Problems grant.
The Lower Lab 