“It is a gateway to the miraculous,” says Sara Lewis, a biology professor at Tufts University who was part of an international working group that established conservation guidelines for firefly tourism. Why they need protectionĮven as the popularity of firefly tourism booms in places like the Smokies, fireflies are declining around the world-forcing the National Park Service to put in place measures to protect them. ![]() Mating season for Photinus carolinus typically lasts about two weeks around the beginning of summer when evening temperatures in the forest have risen above 50 degrees. The work lights the way to more discoveries, and it could lead to exciting applications in medicine.īut the window to see the firefly display is a brief one. Now Bruce Branchini of Connecticut College and colleagues at Yale University have re-created a firefly's glow in their lab. How do fireflies glow? The age-old question has long puzzled scientists. As more males join a swarm, the flashing grows faster and with greater synchrony. Unlike other synchronous species that flash continuously, male Photinus carolinus fireflies light up in a series of four to eight rapid bursts then go dark all at once. The blinking display for these synchronous fireflies can seem random at first, Nichols says. ( These mysterious fireflies synchronize their dazzling light in Mexico.) But each species has a unique flashing pattern that plays an important role in firefly courtship, helping individuals identify their mates. Fireflies-which are a type of beetle-have organs under their abdomens that combine oxygen with a chemical called luciferin to produce a yellow, green, or even blue glow. These glow bugs share the same basic biology as other species. Out of more than 2,000 firefly species in the world, only about a dozen can coordinate their flashes, including Smoky Mountains’ synchronous species, Photinus carolinus. That’s because these are not your average lightning bugs that brighten up backyards around the world with their bioluminescent lanterns. These days, there are about a thousand people out on the trail each night-all watching the spectacle in silent awe. But with the rise of social media, word got out. The synchronous fireflies were more a local curiosity than a tourist sensation when entomologist Becky Nichols began working at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1997. Last year, the event was canceled due to the pandemic and plans have not yet been announced for this year. The festival has become so popular that the park has established a lottery system to win tickets. ![]() Every year, the National Park Service hosts an eight-day event at the peak of mating season, which typically lasts about two weeks around the end of May or the beginning of June. Synchronous fireflies are just one of 19 species of fireflies that live in the Smokies-but they have become a major draw. “The entire forest is flashing together in unison.” ![]() “Seeing these fireflies for the first time is magical,” says Orit Peleg, a physicist at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies synchronous fireflies. Together, the fireflies glow in a series of synchronous bursts before plunging everything into darkness-a pattern that repeats for hours as the fireflies search for their mates. ![]() Every spring, the twinkling lights from thousands of fireflies illuminate the forests of Elkmont, Tennessee, located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |