Fireflies

[orthodoc]

Nothing like them. They're all over our front acreage tonight (and for the past week). A rite of early summer, I'm happy that my father, who has joined us from Ontario and is having his first summer here, is also enjoying them. He recalls them from his time in northern Ontario when he was 'knee-high to a grasshopper'. I love watching them as they dip and weave over the sloping fields to the west and northwest of the house.

[Sundae]

Gosh I'd love to see fireflies.
I'll put them on the list.

I heard John Barrowman do a lovely, delicate version of the song "Fireflies" but all I can find online is a jumpy-dancey version which I don't think suits the song.
Shame, because it can be a sweet song and I forgot how nicely the boy sings.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, fun to watch, especially when they simply liter the horizon. I've seen some time-lapse photos on the net showing their flight as a dotted line.
Ah, thank you Google.

[Griff]

They were out in force last night while I was in the apiary getting stung. Aggressive at night, noted and learned.

[Aliantha]

I have never seen one. I dont think we get them here.

[nowhereman]

Originally Posted by Griff

They were out in force last night while I was in the apiary getting stung. Aggressive at night, noted and learned.

At night, they think they are being robbed and are much more aggressive. They can be cranky in the rain and high humidity as well.
You will get to know when not to bother them. (But you're having fun, yes?) We don't have nearly as many fireflies as when I was young. There were just a few out last night, when there used to be hundreds of them.

[lumberjim]

Lightning bugs.

We had two of them up under my porch roof Saturday night. Blinking quickly and chasing each other around. They use the light to locate mates.

I remember getting home right at dusk one night when we lived in Coatesville. It was the first time Spencer experienced them. We had a great time chasing them around in front of the house.

And several occasions when I was a child, collecting them in jars with my buddies. Hundreds of them.

When you hit one with your car's windshield, the bug splat glows green.

[BigV]

Luciferase is the main ingredient that puts the Lightning in the bugs. Interestingly, at my last gig, luciferase was the key to their main business. They produced testing kits and supplies to verify hygiene of surfaces used in food production. Unlike the dirty chickens in a different thread where pathogens are the focus of attention, verifying that a surface is biologically clean is harder to do.

The way their product worked is like this: take a sterile swab and wipe it on the surface you wish to test. This could be any part of a food preparation surface, machinery, anywhere. Take that swab and insert it into the instrument produced by the company and press a button. The reading on the instrument would then reveal whether or not there were any biological contamination on the swab, and by extension, on the surface tested. This was done ingeniously by noting that luciferase lights up when in the presence of ATP, adenosine triphospate, the fuel for cells. Should the swab, spiked with luciferase, be combined with ATP, light would be emitted. The instrument detects this emission and thereby indicates the presence of ATP, which implies that the surface in question has *NOT* been cleaned completely. This is good to know, since we all want food prepared on, by and with surfaces and equipment that is sterile. This is a good way to know.

Because, of course, you can't see the biological contamination, any more than you could see the gross splashies from that chicken. By the way, the company also produced test kits for the detection of specific pathogens, e. coli, salmonella, etc.

Lightning bugs are cool!!

[lumberjim]

I know a guy who knows a guy that had something to do with that application of lightning bug lightning.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by nowhereman

We don't have nearly as many fireflies as when I was young. There were just a few out last night, when there used to be hundreds of them.

When I moved to this location in 1979 there were tons of them. Then they seemed to diminish a little more every year for awhile then the population exploded. They seem to cycle like that but I don't know if it's a know phenomenon or just peculiar to my neighborhood.

Ah Wiki says...

Fireflies hibernate over winter during the larval stage, some species for several years.

Maybe that's why the population fluctuates. Damifino.

[Gravdigr]

One night I was out in the boondocks, very little light pollution, and came to a stop sign. Directly across the road was a giant field of tall grass (weeds), and in this field was the greatest single concentration of fireflies I have ever witnessed. It was hypnotizing. I turned off my headlights and just sat there, staring. Then after a couple minutes, I turned off the Jeep, and sat there and stared some more.

I sat there for probably fifteen to twenty minutes, by myself, watching lightning bugs.

I'll never forget it.

[Lola Bunny]

Nice. Wish I could've seen that too.

[orthodoc]

We still see thousands every night, all over the acres down to the road and across the creek. It's the summer porch-sit movie.

I didn't realize this was uncommon. I'm so lucky, here. So much nature up close and doing its thing.

[Lola Bunny]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

We still see thousands every night, all over the acres down to the road and across the creek. It's the summer porch-sit movie.

I didn't realize this was uncommon. I'm so lucky, here. So much nature up close and doing its thing.

Yes, you are. I live in a city all my life. Never seen a firefly before.

[orthodoc]

Originally Posted by Lola Bunny

Yes, you are. I live in a city all my life. Never seen a firefly before.

You must arrange it, then. Come to our few acres, if nothing else. No one should live out a life without seeing fireflies.