North American Lightning Bug Gardens for North America's Fireflies

Summary: North America's 16 firefly genera know what they need to survive and leave when planned and wild North American lightning bug gardens vanish or worsen.

fireflies and lupine flowers in Milo, Maine: Mike Lewinski (ikewinski), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Lightning Bug Gardens Attract Canadian, Mexican, U.S. Fireflies

North America’s fireflies appear in planned and wild North American lightning bug gardens in Canada, Mexico and the United States sometime between February and November, according to Firefly Watch recordkeeping since 2008.

Blinking beetles begin yearly life cycles earlier and end natural histories later in more southerly niches and emerge later and retire earlier in more northerly habitats. Glow beetles can be observed between February and November in parts of the United States, during June in Mexico and throughout the summer in southern Canada.

The Firefly Watch citizen science project website through the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts, describes 16 firefly genera whose distribution ranges overlap with North Americans. North America’s fireflies expect similar animals and plants for survival even though behavior divides glow bugs of Canada, Mexico and the United States into three groups.

Lightning Bug Gardens Flash, Glow or Have Pheromones

Blinking beetles such as those in the Bicellonycha, Micronaspis, Photinus, Photuris and Pyractomena genera flash one, two, three, four or many more times to attract mates. Both genders of fireflies in the Microphotus, Pleotodes and Pleotomus genera glow during mating season while only females glow in perches down under Phausis genus males. Pheromones, chemical releases in planned and wild North American lightning bug gardens, have mate-attracting roles in the Brachylampis, Ellychnia, Lucidota, Paraphausis, Pollaclassis, Pterotus and Pyropyga genera.

The combination of adenosine triphosphate, luciferin, magnesium and oxygen in the presence of the enzyme luciferase is the chemical reaction that lights up North America’s fireflies.

Flashers join glowers east of the Rockies and the Mountains’ imaginary extension into northern Mexico and into southern Canada while non-flashers join non-glowers to the west.

Lightning Bug Gardens Keep Fireflies Fed, Hydrated, Shaded

Atmospheric humidity, filtered shade, invertebrate prey, layered vegetation, soil moisture and standing water keep North America’s fireflies in planned and wild North American lightning bug gardens. The littlest cloudburst, the slightest shade, the smallest puddle and the sparsest tidbit let fireflies survive dry, sunbaked aridity in Mexico and in the United States. All 16 genera move away when construction, pavement and pollution disrupt established and recent habitats even though blinking beetle-friendly niches may be in the immediate area.

Not one firefly genus needs to fear predatory threats from natural enemies other than from some human advocates and practitioners of glow beetle-unfriendly land use patterns. Predation-minded amphibians, arthropods, birds, mammals and reptiles observe the aposematic bioluminescence and cautionary green, red and yellow colors and shun distasteful, unpalatable flashers, glowers and stinkers.

Lightning Bug Gardens Put Synchronous Possibilities in Backyards

Planned and wild North American lightning bug gardens put scientific advances in the hands of citizen scientists since firefly life cycles and natural histories require research. Slugs, snails and worms qualify as observable prey for larval stages of North America’s fireflies, whose adult foods may be floral nectar, floral pollen or nothing.

Citizen science and leisurely enjoyment of flashes, glows and pheromones require grasses for perching, shrubs and trees for patrolling, soil for burrowing and water for moisturizing. Yards suit glow bugs best when lawns are not buzz-cut, moonlight is not from a full moon and night-time lighting is non-existent outdoors and shaded indoors.

Firefly-friendly gardening turns neighborhoods into venues for synchronized flashes and glows, premier Elkmont viewing area events in North Carolina’s and Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The eight-day synchronous firefly viewing event in 2016 at Elkmont in Great Smoky Mountains National Park  takes place May 31-June 7, with parking passes distributed through a lottery system; Gathering of Souls 2014 photo by Radim Schreiber: Smoky Mountains @AbouttheSmokies via Twitter April 29, 2016

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

fireflies and lupine flowers in Milo, Maine: Mike Lewinski (ikewinski), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photinus_Carolinus_Fireflies.jpg

The eight-day synchronous firefly viewing event at Elkmont in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2016 takes place May 31-June 7, with parking passes distributed through a lottery system; Gathering of Souls 2014 photo by Radim Schreiber: Smoky Mountains @AbouttheSmokies via Twitter April 29, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/AbouttheSmokies/status/726037366616502272

For further information:

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Available @ http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/fireflies-12-things-you-didnt-know-about-lightning-bugs

Breyer, Melissa. 29 May 2014. “How to Attract Fireflies to Your Backyard.” Mother Nature Network > Organic Farming & Gardening.
Available @ http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/how-to-attract-fireflies-to-your-backyard

Brown, Linda. “Firefly / Lightning Bug.” Texas A&M University > Extension Horticulture > Galveston County Master Gardeners > Beneficials in the Garden and Landscape.
Available @ http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-40_lightning_bug.htm

CBS Sunday Morning. "Tennessee fireflies: a summertime light show." YouTube. July 13, 2014.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCWkzQqO7Ro

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Available @ http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/firefly/

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Available @ https://legacy.mos.org/fireflywatch/

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Available @ http://www.firefly.org/

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Available @ http://insects.about.com/od/beetles/a/10-Cool-Facts-About-Fireflies.htm

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Available @ http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/7-unusual-insect-courting-rituals/fireflies-flashdance

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Available @ http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/why-do-fireflies-glow

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Available @ http://eol.org/pages/7487/overview

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Available @ http://www.backyardnature.net/lightbug.htm

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/05/big-dipper-firefly-yellow-green.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 March 2015. “Book Review: The Fireflies Book by Brett Ortler.” Wizzley.
Available @ https://wizzley.com/book-review-the-fireflies-book-by-brett-ortler/

McLendon, Russell. 28 March 2014. “Fireflies Turn Dusk to Disco in Dazzling Time-Lapse Video.” Mother Nature Network > Earth Matters > Animals.
Available @ http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/fireflies-turn-dusk-to-disco-in-dazzling-time-lapse-video

Ortler, Brett. 2014. The Fireflies Book: Fun Facts about the Fireflies You Loved as a Kid. Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications, Inc.

Smoky Mountains @AbouttheSmokies. 29 April 2016. "Lottery opens at 12:00 noon today for the Synchronous Firefly Show at Elkmont passes." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/AbouttheSmokies/status/726037366616502272

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