Who Owns Appalachia’s Greatest Natural Light Show? - Many viewers want to bask in synchronous fireflies’ glow. Ecologists want to ensure that the insects aren’t hurt in the process.
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Clyde Sorenson had a hunch. Archival data from the North Carolina Entomological Museum’s collection had led him to suspect that some of the fireflies atop Grandfather Mountain in western North Carolina might be more than the average lightning bug. An entomologist at North Carolina State University, Sorenson is the sort of college professor who challenges his students to write a Shakespearean sonnet praising their favorite insect. He headed up to the mountains in the summer of 2019, and while staying in one of Grandfather’s cabins, he decided to do a little investigating.
“I got finished dinner, and I started poking around, turning on the porch light,” he says. “When it got good and dark, the synchronous fireflies started to show up. I was tickled on two scores: one, it’s really cool to see them. And two, I was right.”
Sorenson had uncovered a population of synchronous fireflies pulsing in the heart of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge mountain range. Firefly displays vary wildly, depending on the species. Some, like the common Big Dipper firefly, flash in low, long swoops. Others hover close to the ground, glowing faintly and steadily, like the eerie Blue Ghost. But most displays are asynchronous—each bug creates its own beat.
Photinus carolinus, the species that Sorenson found, is one of a small handful of synchronous firefly species in the world. These insects flash together in six to eight quick bursts, then go dark for eight seconds. Biologists suspect that the pause evolved to confuse predators, allowing the fireflies to find a mate under brief cover of darkness.
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https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...ies-appalachia
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/0...fireflies.html