Ways to Help Fireflies

                    

When you look out your window in the summer dusk, perhaps the first thing you see are the spectacular blinking of flashing fireflies. There are some very simple things you can do to help them. Once again, turn out all outdoor lights. Fireflies flash to attract mates, and females may think a distant light is a male.

Plant some trees or other tall-growing plants. Fireflies love shade for their light displays, and as a place to rest during the hot days.

Just like with butterflies, always release your fireflies! When you release the fireflies, that gives them a chance to reproduce to make more fireflies next year. Catching Tip: In order to catch the most fireflies, you should just use your hands. Getting things out of a net can take quite long.

A SciStarter(http://www.scistarter.com/) project for you to do concerning fireflies is Firefly Watch(http://www.scistarter.com/project/5-Firefly%20Watch) In this one you are asked to fill out a data observation sheet based on what you saw. Click on the link to learn more.

This is what fireflies at night can look like!

Have you ever wondered how fireflies produce their flash? Their abdomens contain phosphorous, a bioluminescent element. Fireflies flash to attract mates, and it is only the males that you see up in the air. The females stay in the grass following the flashes of each male. It may look all the same to your eyes, but each male has its own unique flash pattern. Males have certain flash patterns incorporating time between flashes and how long a flash is. This is performed over and over again. The female selects her choice of whoever male’s pattern appeals the most to her. 

If you have ever observed fireflies, you may have noticed that some fireflies have a different type of flash. One type of firefly has a shorter, yellow-green flash and flies in either a steep ascending or descending pattern. Another type has a longer, yellow flash and flies in a random pattern. So what’s going on? In fact, one of the fireflies, the one with the yellow flash is from the genus Photuris. The other one is from the genus Photinus. The Photuris firefly is larger, and actually preys on the photinus.

Photinus Firefly 

                               

Photuris Firefly

SciStarter projects to participate in: Firefly Watch. With this project, instead of taking pictures of fireflies, you are asked to fill out an observation form of your firefly data and send it. If you enter ‘firefly’ in the SciStarter search box, you shall find Firefly Watch. Click on the title for further information about this project.

Photuris eating Photinus!

Female Firefly 

Male Firefly

Notice the difference between the male and female firefly. The female has more abdominal segments while the male has fewer, but bigger ones devoted mainly to flash-producing(the white part)