Friday, June 4, 2010

Effing Fireflies

What, you thought I was kidding? I thought I'd try to get some new orb pictures, but the fireflies were tricky to capture. Until they got right down to business...but then they stopped flashing and started mashing. I hope this earns me some cred at the Old Entomologist.
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11 comments:

Mendacious D said...

They are the most dangerous orbs of all. Organic ones.

Smut Clyde said...

F'ing fireflies. How do they work?

J— said...

Their little larvae glow too. The buggers start early.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I thought it would be easy to get a picture of one glowing, but they have a tricky movement pattern.

Probably because they'd all be dead if they didn't.
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Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Probably because they'd all be dead if they didn't.

Remember to poke holes in the lid of the jar.

Some females mimic the flashing of other species, to lure males of said species to their doom.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Indeed.

The photuris I see have a greenish light, rather than yellow. They seem to appear later in the evening as well.
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Substance McGravitas said...

Clicking "Report Abuse" header link furiously...

Alicia Morgan said...

Lucky you - I don't even get to see fireflies any more - not in California - or hear whippoorwills either...

Smut Clyde said...

Their little larvae glow too. The buggers start early.

New Zealand glowworms are the luminous maggots of a kind of fungus gnat. The maggots live on the ceilings of caves in slime tunnels they create; they're carnivorous and catch their prey in sticky fishing lines, a sort of bead-curtain-of-slime effect.

Hmm. Sez here that a vaguely related species is found in the Appalachians. I did not know that.

Dragon-King Wangchuck said...

So fireflies turn out the lights before getting it on. I never would have pegged them as puritans.

Glennis said...

I haven't seen fireflies in years.... wow.