Synchronous fireflies

[John K Jordan]

The synchronous fireflies are at it again in the woods and even in the yard near the house. I've been watching them at the farm here and at our previous house for at least 25 years now. The first few nights I see them there are not many and they are not quite synchronized but in just a few days they are everywhere and synchronized nicely. They stay fairly low at first, about shoulder height or lower, but later tend to move higher in the trees. Their flash is a series of very short blinks unlike normal fireflies whose blink is slow enough to see a trail when they move.

It's fascinating to see 50 fireflies all blinking in perfect unison. Every once in a while a rogue flies in from another area out of sync but he quickly gets with the local program.

It's humorous to hear of people paying for a lottery ticket, paying driving hours, paying a big parking fee, then waiting for their turn to be shuttled to a viewing area in the Great Smoky Mountains. When I was working a woman told of her viewing adventure in the Smokys then got visibly upset when I told her I watch them in our woods every year. Not too many years ago insect scientists declared they were only found in first one, then two areas in the country. I wrote to some researchers and told them about ours but never heard back.

Once I collected a bunch with a net and put them in our screen-in porch. They didn't blink once!

JKJ

[Jim Koepke]

That makes me envious. My fond memories of being about 25 miles east of Memphis and enjoying the delight of watching fireflies are now being recalled. Wish we had them here.

jtk

[Bradley Gray]

We actually have a population here in Southern Ohio. My wife discovered them about 5 years ago. Lynn Faust from Knoxville (author, "Fireflies, Glow-worms and Lightning Bugs) visited and caught samples for DNA testing and determined they were the same as the ones in TN.

Lynn also worked on a film about fireflies with Sir David Attenborough and the BBC.

Most years they have started on the same date as the one's in GSMs - this year a week later.

Lynn's book is available from the Univ. of Georgia Press - recommended! http://www.ugapress.org


(http://www.ugapress.org)

[roger wiegand]

Ours are independent minded. No synchronous flashing, but they sure are pretty anyway. We had some the other night that were doing rapid strobing as they rose, I hadn't seen that before.

[Curt Harms]

We had fireflies the first couple years we lived at our current residence. It was a green field development. We haven't seen many the last 10+ years, I wonder if the oh-so-perfect lawns and the pesticides needed to keep them looking oh-so-perfect have something to do with that.

[John K Jordan]

We actually have a population here in Southern Ohio. My wife discovered them about 5 years ago. Lynn Faust from Knoxville (author, "Fireflies, Glow-worms and Lightning Bugs) visited and caught samples for DNA testing and determined they were the same as the ones in TN. ...



From the descriptions I've read, those we see might not be the same as those in the mountains, but I've never seen them. Perhaps I'll contact Lynn. Thanks for the book idea - I just ordered one from Amazon.

Funny, when you said Lynn Faust in Knoxville I did a double-take - I thought I knew her, but the woman I know has a different spelling on her last name. I could imaging this Lynn being interested in any kind of bugs. :)

JKJ

[Peter Mich]

They put on quite a show each evening outside my bedroom window. I have many memories from my younger days catching them and watching close up. Thanks for sharing information about the book. I just ordered a copy.

[Bradley Gray]

I didn't realize, until we made contact with Lynn and got her book, there are about 30 different kinds of fireflies.

The one's we caught in our youth in Ohio are "j-strokes". We are also seeing "treetop flashers", "chinese lanterns" and some fast flying predators that appear along with the sychronous ones.

[Stan Calow]

I think twice about applying lawn pesticides because I miss the large clouds of fireflies of my youth.

[Dave Lehnert]

https://www.firefly.org/why-are-fireflies-disappearing.html

[John K Jordan]

I think twice about applying lawn pesticides because I miss the large clouds of fireflies of my youth.

That's a wonderful and environmentally responsible policy! I read research showing many people casually and habitually apply pesticides to lawns to kill possibly undetermined and even undetected insects. Insectphobia?

The problem is many insects are good and helpful. Even ants aerate the soil and clean up debris. Now I do target and eliminate fire ant mounds! And I put out a guard boundary to keep them outside the house.

The recommendation is to never apply pesticide unless it targets a specific problem. Much worse than spreading on lawns is putting pesticide such as powdered Sevin on plants such as green beans while they are flowering - the honeybees pick it up like pollen and carry it back to the hive and sometimes the entire colony dies. The rate of loss of the worlds insects is alarming. There goes our food supply...

[Lee Schierer]

We used to have tons of fireflies, now we just get a few in the area. One year there were so many it looked like a truck load of twinkle lights had been strung across the field behind our house. Not much pesticide in use, but the grass field has reverted to mostly brush and trees. Ours seem to blink with their own non-synchronous pattern.

[Curt Harms]

I know skunks are not very popular here but they do have at least one beneficial trait. They find Japanese Beetle larvae absolutely scrumptious. We used to have Japanese Beetles. One morning I went out and found several areas where the ground had been dug up and had no idea who or what was responsible. One moon lit night we saw the responsible parties. No more Japanese Beetles.

[Mark Rainey]

Synchronous fireflies must be beautiful to view! I lived in Lancaster Pennsylvania for 10 years and our children loved our backyard full of fireflies at night.

[John K Jordan]

Synchronous fireflies must be beautiful to view! I lived in Lancaster Pennsylvania for 10 years and our children loved our backyard full of fireflies at night.

They are amazing to experience. They are not nearly as bright as the longer slow blinkers but to stand in the woods and see dozens all around and as far as you can see through the trees all blinking at the exact moment is mesmerizing. Last night I even watched some from my bedroom window. Tonight I think I'll take an extended walk to different areas where I usually don't go and see how extensive they are here. I wonder how they would look through night-vision binoculars - I'll try that too.

An article I read yesterday said that too many lights are a problem and can confuse them, especially moving lights. Could even reduce their numbers in the long run.

[Bradley Gray]

We turn off all our outdoor lighting and keep inside lights low during the 3-4 week season.

6-8 synced flashes then they all go black - I think the darkness is the coolest part.

[David Sochar]

About 40 yrs ago, a group of us that shared a large old farm (called a "commune") spent our evenings on the large front porch, making music and rolling joints. We watched the lightning bugs come up from the grass as it grew dark. Eventually, someone would bring up the notion of them synchronizing, so we would watch and detect small areas that appeared to be synching. But not really, as we knew better, despite the adulterants.

After a few nights of this, one of the porch setters put down his guitar, passed the bong, and announced he figured it out. The fireflies were watching us
as we played and sang and laughed.

They were watching, waiting, hoping we would sync for them.

And, occasionally we did.

[Mike Soaper]

I've sometimes wondered if the use of endophytes in some lawn tall fescue grasses has also led to the decline of lightning bugs. As I understand it, the endophytes are a fungus that lives between the cells of the grass and makes the grass more stress tolerant from heat, drought, and insects (i.e. lightning bugs). The lightning bugs I see here are mostly in the woods, not the grass lawn.

I've not used insecticide on the lawn, but it's tempting regarding ticks

[Ron Citerone]

Never thought much about them. We have tons in Southeastern PA. I figured one variety. I am at my cottage On the Delaware Bay and last night I saw a bunch in the marsh. Definitely different than what I see in PA. Googled and found out NJ has 19 varieties. Funny this post came up today!

[John K Jordan]

Never thought much about them. We have tons in Southeastern PA. I figured one variety. I am at my cottage On the Delaware Bay and last night I saw a bunch in the marsh. Definitely different than what I see in PA. Googled and found out NJ has 19 varieties. Funny this post came up today!

I bought this book, perhaps you would find it interesting: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820348724

I took data on the flash rates of those here (one flash every 0.75 seconds) and caught two to examine. From the book I determined the synchronized fireflies here are Photuris Frontalis, otherwise known as Snappy Single Sync. Communication with the book author confirmed this. She encouraged me to check out the others on my farm - I've distinguished two other types but there are probably more.

I grew up in Southwestern PA (south of Pittsburgh) and we had zillions of fireflies, but I never saw any with synchronized flashes like those here.

JKJ

[Ron Citerone]

I bought this book, perhaps you would find it interesting: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820348724

I took data on the flash rates of those here (one flash every 0.75 seconds) and caught two to examine. From the book I determined the synchronized fireflies here are Photuris Frontalis, otherwise known as Snappy Single Sync. Communication with the book author confirmed this. She encouraged me to check out the others on my farm - I've distinguished two other types but there are probably more.

I grew up in Southwestern PA (south of Pittsburgh) and we had zillions of fireflies, but I never saw any with synchronized flashes like those here.

JKJ
Thanks John, I will look into the book. Never too old to learn. Here in Cumberland County NJ, where my cottage is on the Delaware Bay there is so much wildlife to see. Yesterday a turtle dug a nest in the sand and laid eggs right next to my cottage. Lots of insect here too, a lot of them bite unfortunately! July is Greenhead fly month. By first week of August the insects subside. In September the Monarchs migrate along my house toward Cape May. Sometimes we see several dozen on bushes around the house.

[Bill Dufour]

They say the crickets chirping rate is related to the temperature. it gets faster as it warms up. i wonder if the flash rate of fire flys could vary in a similar manner.
Bil lD

The simplest method is to count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and add 40. The sum usually approximates the temperature within a few degrees Fahrenheit.

[John K Jordan]

They say the crickets chirping rate is related to the temperature. it gets faster as it warms up. i wonder if the flash rate of fire flys could vary in a similar manner.
Bil lD


In her book Lynn Faust indicates the temperature greatly affects the repeat interval of flash patterns, but since each species has a particular pattern so there can be huge differences in the flash and pattern rates at a given temperature. For example, all three of the species I watched flashed at different rates at the same temperature.

She also discusses the "degree day" value, a way to predict when fireflies emerge based on "the accumulated amount of heat during that season", a method also used to predict when certain flowers bloom, when to plant crops, and things concerning pest control.

JKJ

[Izzy Charo]

As an aside, firefly light has long been studied as an example of the conversion of chemical energy to light. The firefly contains an enzyme (called luciferase...catchy name!) and luciferin, the enzyme substrate. The reaction requires the energy unit known as ATP, and it turns out that this reaction is among the most sensitive ones for ATP. Chemical companies used to pay kids to catch fireflys so they could harvest these enzymes and sell kits to scientists to measure ATP in various reactions.....No idea how they synchronize their flashes though.... Interesting stuff!

[Mike Soaper]

I think that research led to the development of glow sticks

[John K Jordan]

I think that research led to the development of glow sticks

Certainly inspired by! I found this interesting article: https://www.glowtopia.co.uk/news/history-of-glowsticks/

JKJ

[Mike Soaper]

John, thanks for the clarification and link