Glittering Jewels Of The Night--Fireflies

On summer nights I like to go out on the deck and, turning off the light that illuminates the perimeter of the house, I recline in the chaise lounge and get ready for a special magical show.

Soon, my eyes gaze towards the grassy meadow just East of the house, where a shimmering tapestry of blinking lights have already begun their nightly ritual dance. At the same time, nocturnal musicians fill the air with strange syncopated buzzes and moans; the great symphony of the night accompanying the dancers. The meadow is alive with melodious creatures that will scrape wing against wing as many as 10,000 times a night, to produce their music of love, while the winged night-lanterns flash their messages of passion above the meadow, above the pond and even above my head.

Recently, when one of my son's was visiting me from Ohio, he wanted to go out and see some "lightning bugs." As he stood at the edge of the meadow, watching the thousands of flashing lights, he was a kid again, remembering how he and his brother and sister used to run through the grass catching lightning bugs in a jar, and bringing them to me, gleefully. Children through the ages have always been intrigued by the auroras of fireflies.

"I remember you always told us not to hurt them, since they had such short little lives anyway," he said. "It's so cool to see so many of them here. You hardly see them anymore where I live."

That's probably true, I told my son. I read recently that fireflies have disappeared in many areas, due to the loss of habitat, although they still thrive in others, like here in the Ozarks. Loss of habitat and pesticides have done much damage to the firefly population.

The firefly, or lightning bug, is neither a fly nor a bug, but a flying beetle. These twinkling beetles can produce a cold, almost perfect light that lights up the summer night. Our lights, in comparison, are hot and waste energy.

How do fireflies make their light? The process is complicated and not completely understood. The light comes from a chemical reaction in special cells in their abdomen. Oxygen taken in is combined with the chemical luciferin. Luciferin is then activated in another chemical reaction with the substance, luciferase. These two chemicals are then combine with two other chemicals, magnesium and ATP (adenosine triphosphate.)

As ATP, which is the fuel, luciferin and oxygen combine, the luciferin is transformed into a very high energy chemical. However, it's unstable, so as it reverts to its normal state it gives off energy in the form of light. Nerves in the insect control the timing of the flash, and each species of firefly have their own rhythm. A complicated process, indeed, but we don't have to understand it to enjoy it.

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