Were They the Last Ones?

Whew. Busy day. After getting home from my visiting, I had about an hour of yard work left to do. Got it done, then came in to sit on the front porch and ponder and cool down.

I wondered: have the fireflies gone? In mid-summer, the fields would have been undulating with light at that time. Tonight, they were quiet. And then, a twinkle. Not once, not twice, but seven times, out in the middle of what had been an oat field. The last one?

No. An answering response came from the trees on the south side of the porch. Three times. From high up. That was the male call.

I hope they found each other.

I Guess I'd Better Get my Eyes Checked

I had this idea to catch a bunch of fireflies in a canning jar, then remove the lid and take a picture of them as they leave. There's a slight trick to it. Fireflies aren't always lit up: they twinkle. So you spot the twinkle, then track them and snatch them. I see the twinkle, I track them, then they fall out of my visual range (dang bifocals). Only caught one in ten minutes. There goes THAT picture idea!

Fireflys

Bryn gave me this firefly information four years ago:

Bryn is an amazing researcher. I love to read her responses to the Wednesday Wonder. In the firefly post below, she has tons of firefly information that I need to bring up here: ***Okay, I wrote this, bryn didn't***

"Firefly" is the common name for the nocturnal luminous insects belonging to the beetle family .

Lightning bugs, also called fireflies, are not simply bugs and are not flies. They are beetles and part of a scientific family that contains the largest order of living things—290,000 species at last count.

The light given off by fireflies during their abdominal flashes is called bioluminescence. It happens when oxygen and the organic compound luciferin react together in the presence of the enzyme, lucifereace. This creates light.

Although other insects can produce light, fireflies are the only insects that can flash their light on and off in distinct signals. Even the eggs and larvae of some firefly species glow. That’s where the name "glow worm" comes from.

Some fun facts about fireflies:

Did you know that the state insect of Pa. is the firefly ?
Did you know that you won't see fireflies west of the state of Kansas ?
Did you know that you can set up your backyard to attract fireflies ?

FIREFLIES FIREFLIES FIREFLIES FIREFLIES FIREFLIES FIREFLIES