Firefly Watch: Backyard Fun and Citizen Science With Lightning Bugs

Summary: Firefly Watch, Boston Museum of Science project with Fitchburg State College and Tufts University, lights up backyard fun and makes citizen science matter.

fireflies in the Catskills, Delaware County, southeastern New York: s58y, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Firefly Watch Deals in Flashes, Flickers and Glows

Amber, blue, green or yellow and flash, flicker or glow are the colors and the patterns that tell what types of lightning bugs are lighting up the summer, according to Firefly Watch.

The detection of color and of flicker and glow become the easiest skill sets to acquire since yellow and yellow-green generate the predominant blinking beetle looks. A flicker and a glow can be recognized with little practice since almost everyone has experience observing flickering candles, glow-in-the-dark animals and technology, and twinkling stars.

The observation of a flash sometimes demands a bit more effort since the frequency count may range from one to two, three, four or more flashes. Only five of North America’s 16 firefly genera emit flashes: coastal Florida’s Micronaspis genus, southern Arizona’s Bicellonycha genus, and the wide-ranging Photinus, Photuris and Pyractomena genera.

Firefly Watch Identifies Fireflies by Color, Flight, Pulsation

North America’s five blinking beetle genera flash, flicker or glow blue at wavelengths of 475 nanometers, green at 510, yellow at 570 and red at 650.

The chemical reaction of adenosine triphosphate molecules, luciferase enzyme, luciferin organic substrate, magnesium ions and oxygen generates the light that serves as communication among lightning beetles. Twenty-first century research has a recent spin on color variation as the result of the polarity, not the size, of the lightning bug’s luciferase protein cavity. It indicates that larger cavities losing more energy and smaller cavities losing less do not necessarily emit respectively low-energy red light and high-energy green and yellow.

Different amounts of protein residues join differing numbers of water molecules to polarize luciferin diversely enough to vary the color of the flashing, flickering, glowing light.

Firefly Watch Notes Environmental Impacts upon Firefly Behaviors

Low-energy amber light, also called ember red, keeps the Pyractomena genus observable while respectively high-energy green and high-energy yellow signal the presence of Photuris and Photinus. Firefly Watch, Museum of Science project with Fitchburg State College and Tufts University, lists amber-emitting Pyractomena, green-emitting Photuris and yellow-emitting Photinus as likeliest to be seen.

Gender may be assumed as female for blinking beetles that perch above the ground cover or amid grassy, lower levels of planned and wild layered landscapes. The light-emitting organs on the undersides of lower abdomens need to be examined for an exact determination since males launch their post-sunset patrols from the ground. Light organs occur on the last two abdominal sections for males or, in the case of females, on the second-to-last segment or on the segment sides.

Firefly Watch Shows That Backyard Citizen Science Works

Season, temperature and time put some variability into what ordinarily are flashes that are species-specific in color, duration and number and that have predictable between-flash intervals. Examples with Photinus aquilonius males quantify one flash every five seconds and one every 11 at 70 and 54 degrees Fahrenheit (21.11 and 12.22 degrees Celsius). Flashes require diligence because of environmental factors even though practice differentiates fast flashes under 0.2 seconds, normal flashes 0.2 to 0.3 seconds long and protracted flashes.

Firefly Watch toolkits supply color-, flash- and flight-correlated temperature charts and virtual habitats, discussion boards, habitat assessment and weekly report downloads, range maps and reference library. It takes just 10 minutes a week for citizen scientists to complete three color-, flash- and flight-correlated patterns and to prove thereby that backyard science matters.

The Museum of Science, Boston, has operated an annual Firefly Watch since 2008: Museum of Science, Boston @museumofscience via Facebook June 26, 2013

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

fireflies in the Catskills, Delaware County, southeastern New York: s58y, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/s58y/7552791722/

The Museum of Science, Boston, has operated an annual Firefly Watch since 2008: Museum of Science, Boston @museumofscience via Facebook June 26, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/museumofscience/photos/a.90345407723/10151480920527724/

For further information:

Buschman, Larry. March 2016. “Field Guide to Western North American Fireflies.” Kansas State University > Entomology.
Available @ http://entomology.k-state.edu/doc/WesternFireflies%20March%202016a.pdf

Feldkamp, Lisa. 5 August 2014. "The Wonder of Fireflies." Cool Green Science.
Available @ http://blog.nature.org/science/2014/08/05/citizen-science-nature-fireflies-conservation-survey/#sthash.LLJUlnZq.uxfs

“Firefly Flash Patterns.” National Park Service > Great Smoky Mountains > Learn about the Park > Nature.
Available @ https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/firefly-flash-patterns.htm

“Firefly Watch.” Museum of Science, Boston > Legacy.
Available @ https://legacy.mos.org/fireflywatch/

Lall, Abner B. “Colors of the Night: Do Fireflies Detect the Color of Their Bioluminescent Flash?”
Available @ https://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/firefly/Presentations/1%20-%20Tuesday/Session%201/1140%20Lall.pdf<

Marriner, Derdriu. 21 May 2015. “Big Dipper Firefly: Yellow Green Twilight Flashes of Photinus pyralis.” Earth and Space News. Thursday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/05/big-dipper-firefly-yellow-green.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 May 2016. "North American Lightning Bug Gardens for North America's Fireflies." Earth and Space News. Thursday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/05/north-american-lightning-bug-gardens.html

Museum of Science, Boston @museumofscience. 26 June 2013. "Did you know that many fireflies have lost the ability to flash? . . . .Learn more about fireflies and report your own firefly findings with our Firefly Watch program!" Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/museumofscience/photos/a.90345407723/10151480920527724/

Museum of Science, Boston @museumofscience. 21 June 2013. "Happy Friday, fans! With today being the first day of summer, what better way to celebrate than by talking about fireflies? Did you know that we have a Firefly Watch program? We've teamed up with Tufts University and Fitchburg State College to track these amazing insects, but also need your help tracking them. . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/museumofscience/photos/a.90345407723/10151472285097724/

Navizet, Isabelle; Liu, Ya-Jun; Ferré, Nicolas; Xiao, Hong-Yan; Fang, Wei-Hai; and Lindh, Roland. 16 December 2009. “Color-Tuning Mechanism of Firefly Investigated by Multi-Configurational Perturbation Method,” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2010, 132 (2), pp 706-712. DOI: 10.1021/ja908051h
Available @ http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja908051h

Saudade70‏ @saudade70. 3 September 2014. "More Citizen Science Tuesday: Firefly Watch http://shar.es/114oXF via @sharethis." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/saudade70/status/507164749818101761

SciFri. 3 July 2014. "In a Flash: Firefly Communication." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpywSqvXDqc

Trimmer, Barry; Zayas, Ricardo; and Qazi, Sanjive. 28 June 2001. “Nitric Oxide and Firefly Flashing.” Tufts University > Biology.
Available @ http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/Firefly/

Zyga, Lisa. 7 January 2010. “Scientists Investigate How Fireflies Emit Different Colors of Light.” Phys.Org > Chemistry > Materials Science > January 7, 2010.
Available @ http://phys.org/news/2010-01-scientists-fireflies-emit.html