EXPLORING NATURE: LIGHTNING BUGS

Among the delights of a summer night around my place are the flashing, flying lightning bugs. Or, if you prefer a different terminology, the fireflies.

Mark Twain famously said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” And that is the only major literary reference I know of based on this un assuming little bug.

Lightning bugs are a type of beetle and there are some 2,000 species in the world. Most all are nocturnal, but a few are active in daylight.

I was saddened to learn that some female lighting bugs use their flashing abdomen to attract a male and then eat him. Shades of the female praying mantis, who lops off the male’s head during sex.

Both male and female lightning bugs flash, some times continuously, but more often on and off in a unique flash pattern.

Adult fireflies eat dew drops, pollen and nectar. Their flashing comes from a chemical called luciferase in their abdomens. They have a lifespan of about two months.

During those two months, they bring a spark of brightness into the gloom of night. Long may they flicker.