ZeFrank on the waning of fireflies

Here’s a short ZeFrank video on the apparent waning of fireflies, which are luminescent species of beetles in the family Lampyridae. Wikipedia notes as well that fireflies seem to be disappearing worldwide, and there are many reasons why this should be so:

Firefly populations are thought to be declining worldwide. While monitoring data for many regions are scarce, a growing number of anecdotal reports, coupled with several published studies from Europe and Asia, suggest that fireflies are endangered. Recent IUCN Red List assessments for North American fireflies have identified species with heightened extinction risk in the US, with 18 taxa categorized as threatened with extinction.

Fireflies face threats including habitat loss and degradation, light pollution, pesticide use, poor water quality, invasive species, over-collection, and climate change. Firefly tourism, a quickly growing sector of the travel and tourism industry, has also been identified as a potential threat to fireflies and their habitats when not managed appropriately. Like many other organisms, fireflies are directly affected by land-use change (e.g., loss of habitat area and connectivity), which is identified as the main driver of biodiversity changes in terrestrial ecosystems. Pesticides, including insecticides and herbicides, have also been indicated as a likely cause of firefly decline. These chemicals can not only harm fireflies directly but also potentially reduce prey populations and degrade habitat. Light pollution is an especially concerning threat to fireflies. Since the majority of firefly species use bioluminescent courtship signals, they are also sensitive to environmental levels of light and consequently to light pollution.A growing number of studies investigating the effects of artificial light at night on fireflies has shown that light pollution can disrupt fireflies’ courtship signals and even interfere with larval dispersal. Researchers agree that protecting and enhancing firefly habitat is necessary to conserve their populations. Recommendations include reducing or limiting artificial light at night, restoring habitats where threatened species occur, and eliminating unnecessary pesticide use, among many others.

The video describes various ways of monitoring their abundance as well as reprising the causes of decline describe above. When I was a kid, fireflies were abundant during the summer, and we would catch them and put them in jars to make lanterns (we’d let them go afterwards).  Now I can’t remember when I last saw one of these amazing insects. It’s very sad.

I could go on about how they emit light, and the amazing species that flash synchronously, but I’ll leave that ZeFrank in a future video. But if you want to donate, just go to this page of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and cough up a few bucks.

h/t Matthew Cobb