We used to have so many of them when I was a kid. Their numbers are dwindling. π
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Saw this just the other day here...
The less I maintain my yard the more lightning bugs we get.
We do not maintain our back yard very well. I refuse to let these amazing insects disappear. We also seed for pollinators as well.
I saw that the other day too. It's just that 35 years ago, everyone still raked their lawns. Same as 35 years before that.
We are in the middle of an insect apocalypse.
Remember when you were little how many fucking moths there were? Couldn't keep the porch light on at night or they'd get in the house and you'd be finding moth carcasses all summer.
Now there's just a few. Hardly see any anymore.
Same for house flies, and bees. I used to have to go and spray for wasps every spring, I don't remember the last one I saw.
Grasshoppers too. I used to fill buckets with them as a kid. I haven't seen more than a few in the last decade.
i tell this to people all the time and they do not believe me
Remember when you needed a bug shield to drive on the highway?
Yes and yes (to the person you replied to). All I'm saying is that that narrative seems to be coalescing around "it's because people raked leaves." Does that play a part? Probably. But there's no way it's just that. It's far too pervasive to be "personal actions." The root cause has to be systemic.
It's not just the leaves, it's humans fucking with the environment, on a macro and micro scale. But that's harder to convey in a single panel
Bioluminescence is actual magic. I will take no calls on this matter.
Nah, it legit is, though. Just because someone or most someones understand how something happens doesn't mean it isn't magic anymore. It just means that we have a hard magic system. We understand our magic so well that we've stopped seeing it as magical, but if you take a step back and take a look at the big picture it becomes clear that the world is magical, and everything around us is this amazing, often confusing, incredible tapestry of Wonder and awe. The world has just ground us down so much that we feel like wonder is strictly for children, that we're not allowed to feel wonder anymore. Embrace the magic. Even if you know how it works.
"I cast 200 ΞΌg Luciferin."
[Dice noises]
"Nat 15. Your abdomen glows and dims slowly and rhythmically."
Pathfinder 2e literally has bioluminescence bombs that's just jarred firefly juice that's secreted by humanoid fey that resemble the bugs
Fuckin bio-lights how do they work
Spelling it without help is also magic, so I hear ya.
Eh, what fireflies can do is kinda the base level of the bioluminescence 'skill' of the evolutionary tech tree.
https://gizmodo.com/glowing-deep-sea-squid-have-a-complex-form-of-communica-1842472534
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DE89YY7zCio
Humboldt squid skin is bioluminiscent, but roughly akin to a flexible lcd or oled screen, with many different 'pixels' capable of being set specifically.
They likely have the ability to communicate by basically displaying different patterns of different colors and brightnesses and translucency, sorta like a human walking around with a sandwich board made of lcd screens, which they can control with a phone app.
They may very well have an entire language they can convey via sequenced or at least specific patterns.
Note: No clue if you can actually trace bioluminescence in fireflies and certain cephalopods to the same common ancestor or if its completely different, independent evolutionary occurances, but my point is there are certainly more and less complex and utility granting forms of bioluminescence.
Tumbler has one of the worst comment layouts...
I grew up calling them lightning bugs, and I'm so excited to see a thread full of people calling them the same!
Fireflies is a much cooler name though.
It brings me unimaginable sadness to know that my recently born nephew will grow up in such a region, when just a few years ago you could see hundreds of these guys in any given back yard
We've been living at the same house for about a decade. We have a tiny tiny creek in our back yard with some unmowed area around it. Our yard is chemical free and we have tons of pollinators. We saw single digit numbers of lightning bugs for nearly the time we lived here. Never more than two a night and most nights none showed up.
The past few years we've seen an uptick. Not loads, but they seem to be making a small comeback. At least in our yard.
I hate blankets of grass so much
Leave your leaves in autumn!
I lived most of my life in areas where fireflies were around, but they weren't the bioluminescent type,
The house I moved to about 5 years ago is in the woods and 3 months out of the year these guys buzz around my front yard and I've even helped a few out of the house.
They never fail to bring a smile to my face.
My mom grew up in an area of California with no fireflies. When she was a teenager, she went on a cross-country trip with a friend. In the mountains of North Carolina, they were driving along at night when some bugs hit the windshield of their car. They didn't think much of it... until the bug guts started glowing. Then they screamed.
I have never seen one and I am very jealous :(
Yeah. I once even visited the US South, but it was the wrong time of year or area.
Growing up, they were indigenous where I lived. After I moved away, it was so surreal no not see random lights in the back yard during the summer nights.
Tried searching YouTube for "fireflies" to watch them in action. 99.9% of the results are music, podcasts and political channels using the term. Think I saw 2 videos of actual fireflies on the first page of results π
these guys are great!
I was also blown away the first time I've seen bioluminescent bacteria on some strip algae...you would pass your finger by them and see the hidden binary encoded alien messages
It's been more than 20 years since my wife moved to the west cost and she still laments the lack of fireflies. Where-as, whenever I've been out east, I'm caught off guard by them... then I start singing Roxanne.
You don't have to put on the gold light
Firefly: a lightning bug
Lightning bug: a firefly
Fire bug: an arsonist
Lightning fly: ??? The electric eel of the dragonfly world?
"Is that bat glowing?"
That's no bat. Run!"
[Electrical crackling sounds]
I saw a few lightning bugs in my yard last year. My life goal have them consistently in my yard. Good thing this dovetails nicely with my other life goals of getting butterflies, bumblebees and birds in my yards
Different areas have different lightning bugs too. The ones in southern ontario are not the same as the ones in the midwest US.
They have distinct blinking patterns as well. IIRC observing the pattern is one of the ways used to classify them.
Except when it's a firefly pretending to be a different species of firefly.
and colours!
Cocuyo is the name in Cuba π₯Ή
You would not believe your eyes
When ten thousand fireflies
You already messed up on the second sentence man, its ten million, not ten thousand
Well, shit
edit: in my defense, |i've never seen a single firefly, so ten thousand would be enough for me not to believe my eyes
coming from australia, this is super realβ¦ we have such a unique set of animals and plants that itβs all just so normal to us, but then you travel overseas and everything is like what you see on tv and in movies
iβm mid 30s, and last year i saw snow falling for the first time in chicagoβ¦ snow falling is beautiful, and to most of the world itβs just normal - to australians, it just never happens