Have you seen lightening bugs?

Shirley Martin

Shirley Martin

Well-known member
I just saw my first lightening bugs of summer a couple of nights ago. You know what that means, don't you?




You don't? Hmmm? Well, get ready to ROFLOL.



Because that means it's time for my annual lightening bugs joke.

Here it comes, ready or not.



First lightening bug....... "What are you trying to do, set the world on fire?"



Second lightening bug...... "Nope, just trying to show my ass."



You can laugh any time now. ☺️
 
It has been so cold till recently and so dry lately, I would not show up if I were a lightning bug. But this week is supposed to be big rain. If that is so, lightning bugs can come next week. I am supposed to supply cattails for people to try as wild food in a week. No rain--no cattails. I may be a failure.:(
 
Did you hear about the lightening bug who backed into a fan? He was de-lighted!!!

I noticed a bumper crop of them last year on my property. It seems we used to see tons of them when I was a kid. I just read that light pollution disrupts their mating signals, causing population decline. And their larva need 2-3 years under undisturbed leaf litter in order to mature, so there is a loss of habitat factor.. Another place said "climate change," but without specifics (too hot/too cold/too climatey) I throw the BS flag on that stuff.
 
We had a storm go through, and I just stuck my head outside the window. There are maybe a couple of dozen of them in my back yard and a bunch more out front. I have over 50 acres and only about 5-7 of them are cleared, so there's plenty of undisturbed habitat for them out there. And I had my Dusk-to-Dawn light turned off around 2012 or so, so there's no direct light pollution.
 
Mary Stetler said:
I saw one fly our of our wood garage today, not lit. It wasn't quite big enough yet and I don't see any out tonite yet. But our weather was so weird, that's probably the problem why they are late.
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It was late twilight (not quite dark) when I saw some this evening, and when I looked out later there was only a few. There are none now (11PM.) The internet says the best time to see them is between dusk and midnight. It's humid (98%) but not real hot out (70°F), so maybe that's why.
 
This map shows firefly occurrence records across North America from three sources: observations submitted by Firefly Atlas participants; the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF); and other museum specimen and observation records compiled by the Xerces Society.

I selected 6/1/25 to 6/22/26 as the date range. I'm pretty certain each of the 3 colors denotes a specific species, but don't know what each species is.

34Yri7j.jpeg


I was curious as to who the Xerces Society is, since I know from my childhood alphabet book and the Bible that Xerces was the 4th king of Persia (from 486 BC to 465 BC.) The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. Our name (which is pronounced Zer-sees, or /ˈzɚˌsiz/) comes from the now-extinct Xerces blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces), the first butterfly known to go extinct in North America as a result of human activities.

Link to map
Link to Xerces Society
 
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