Vince_Condella's Blog

Did any of you collect fireflies in a jar as a kid?  I remember it fondly.  I would sit in the dark of my bedroom and watch those little guys light up the room.  Then I'd take them back outside and release them.  Some summers were better than others for catching fireflies.

Well this year is a banner year for the critters.  Last summer's wet weather in August made for perfect conditions.  Last year's fireflies laid their eggs in the soft, wet soil of late summer.  The larvae hatched and buried themselves for the winter, emerging this year as the adult firefly.

With this summer's wet weather, especially in June, we may have more perfect conditions to breed a bumper crop of fireflies next summer.

The firefly, also known as the "lightning bug.

Fireflies are a member of the beetle family.  There are over 2,000 species of fireflies around the world, especially in the tropics through about 50 degrees latitude.  That would include all of the U.S. and part of Canada.  The larvae love wet areas such as marshes, and they do well in wooded regions, too.  These are areas where the larvae have access to many food sources.

A special chemical process in the body of the adult firefly, called bioluminescence, allows them to emit light.  They do it for love.  Males and females communicate and find partners by "answering" each others light emissions.  It is the bug's version of the hook-up.

Bioluminescence is a very efficient lighting process.  About 90% of the energy used by the firefly to create light is used for producing the visible light.  That's not bad compared to the 10% efficiency of an incandescent electric light bulb.  The other 90% of energy used in a light bulb is wasted as heat.

Now if we could just find a way to hook up those lightning bugs to a battery, we might begin to solve our energy crises!