This June I went to see the only species of synchronous fireflies in North America. Every year, for only two weeks in June, these tiny nocturnal beetles emerge as adults to find a mate, lay their eggs, and die. During this cyclical eruption of fireflies, the adult males do as most males of the beetle family Lampyridae do. They try to find a mate by flashing their light organs until a female flashes back. Some species have kind of primitive light displays, the males zipping around, hovering low over the dark vegetation with their light organ glowing like running lights. When a female responds with her own flash, he puts on the brakes and flies down to her for a little coffee and conversation and if he is lucky, the chance to make baby fireflies. Other species have complex flash patterns, the males executing a precise "flash dance" to identify their species to their female audience. Then there are the synchronous fireflies. These are truly special, because instead of each male flying and displaying individually, lone wolves at the singles bar that is the forest undergrowth, the males of synchronous species display all together, an army of synchronized dancing flashes of light across the hillside. Some species of synchronous fireflies, like those that light up in mangrove trees along the rivers of Thailand, flash on and off together seemingly instantly. The ones that I went to see in the Great Smoky Mountains this June seemed to have a more loosely organized display. A region of the hillside would begin to twinkle, each male flashing 6 to 8 short bursts, then the wave would travel across the forest floor, the twinkling spreading until the whole hillside was flashing. Just as soon as that happened, the whole hillside would be dark, except for a few other species of fireflies, their running lights engaged, meandering between the weeds. Wave after flashing wave would travel through the forest like a silent beetle disco late into the night. Few people get the chance to see this phenomenon once in their life. I have now seen it twice. I am so charmed by this light dance- both its visual effect, and the joy of visiting Elkmont just to see them, like a pilgrim entomologist coming to pay homage. For me, this event is a time of renewal, like New Years' Day. It comes at the beginning of summer, when I have just slogged through another year of teaching. It is a time for me to reflect on how the year went and to start forming goals for next year. One of my goals for this year was to write more. So here I am, resuscitating this blog as a little creative outlet. If anyone is reading this, I hope you have a renewal time like this every year- some event that reminds you to light up and fly while you still can.
Firefly image by Flickr user scyllarides. Used under Creative Commons license Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic.
