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Lighting Bugs


Allen

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The grandkids will grab a jar and go out to catch fireflies and they will all be lit and all go out and the yard will be pitch black. The kids say “hey, who turned out the lights.” Sometimes a stray one or two will get their lights stuck on in the grass but the rest blink together.

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12 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

The Allegheny forest ones must have expanded their territory because ours do.

If yours all stop at the same time after flashing 10-15 times and then start back up, they are Photinus carolinus. If they continue to flash without stopping they are the same same species as mine, Photuris frontalis.

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10 hours ago, Allen said:

I saw my first couple of lighting bugs tonight. 
In the next couple of nights they should be out in full symphony all blinking together. 
My property is one of just a few places in the world where they are synchronous. I wish I could film it but they are almost impossible to capture on video, the only way to show their synchronicity. Got to have speciality low light gear. I just get what look like hot pixels on my SLR in video mode. And an iPhone can’t see them at all. 

That would be so amazing to see.  

 

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9 minutes ago, jsharr said:

The little things like fireflies, a kind word or a smile are what makes life special.

It is.

 

8 minutes ago, jsharr said:

That would be so amazing to see.  

 

It really is once you understand what you are seeing. The whole of my woods looks like it has been strung with Christmas tree lights. 

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1 hour ago, Longjohn said:

The Allegheny forest ones must have expanded their territory because ours do.

You have something really special. You will make the entomologist at your local college’s year if you invite them out to observe them. 

To see them in the Great Smoky mountains you have to enter a lottery to get tickets to tour the valley where they are found. They canceled it this year due to covid. https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/fireflies.htm
 

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2 hours ago, Longjohn said:

The Allegheny forest ones must have expanded their territory because ours do.

You may want to contact Andrew Moiseff, andrew.moiseff@uconn.edu

He’s the foremost expert on these bugs and is very approachable. He sent me loads of info on them. 

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Good ol’l National Geographic. They shelled out for a good low light camera. This is the only really good video that I can find that shows synchronized lighting bugs. Mine are slightly different in flash pattern. These all stop at once after a handful of flashes. Mine never stop, they just keep chugging on flashing. 
I’m really passionate about my bugs. 
 

 

 

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1 minute ago, ChrisL said:

Ever drive through a bunch of them? Trippy when they splat & glow on your windshield....

Caught a small brim that had just eaten one, you could see it flashing in its gullet. You can also see them flashing through the silk when spiders catch them and wrap them up.

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They get thick here about late June. More populous as you drive west. A few years back, I drove the Miata to North Platte about 150 miles west of here. Drove back in the late evening with the top down. All the lightning bugs around and above me made me feel like I was driving at Warp Speed!

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On 5/31/2020 at 9:49 PM, Allen said:

I saw my first couple of lighting bugs tonight. 
In the next couple of nights they should be out in full symphony all blinking together. 
My property is one of just a few places in the world where they are synchronous. I wish I could film it but they are almost impossible to capture on video, the only way to show their synchronicity. Got to have speciality low light gear. I just get what look like hot pixels on my SLR in video mode. And an iPhone can’t see them at all. 

In Japan they celebrate fireflies as a night festival ...it was around time we were there...we didn't go.  

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They should be starting pretty soon here. This is my first summer in this house, I have high hopes for lightning bugs.

When I was an avid fly fisherman mayflies were my favorite bug, and are still in contention, but lightning bugs are they're own kind of special.

Speaking of bugs....there is a big, black, hairy, spider hanging out by the window on the stairs from the garage. I give him room and wish him well when heading to the car in the morning. In the afternoon coming home he is hidden.

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There used to be a farm field that they quit farming and it was just a field of tall grass along the road at my old home.  I'd walk the dogs in the evening and OMG there had to be millions of lightning bugs on and above the grass in the field.  I was like a like a galaxy far far away had descended on the field. 

And then they sold it... and someone then mowed it all down.  :(

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Well, my bugs have packed it in for the year. 3 nights ago there were hundreds blinking together, tonight I saw maybe 5. 
Got plenty of regular lighting bugs still, but I think those are going to call it quits in a few days too. 
Time to wait for next season. 

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