We used to have so many of them when I was a kid. Their numbers are dwindling. π
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Saw this just the other day here...
The less I maintain my yard the more lightning bugs we get.
We do not maintain our back yard very well. I refuse to let these amazing insects disappear. We also seed for pollinators as well.
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I saw that the other day too. It's just that 35 years ago, everyone still raked their lawns. Same as 35 years before that.
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Bioluminescence is actual magic. I will take no calls on this matter.
Nah, it legit is, though. Just because someone or most someones understand how something happens doesn't mean it isn't magic anymore. It just means that we have a hard magic system. We understand our magic so well that we've stopped seeing it as magical, but if you take a step back and take a look at the big picture it becomes clear that the world is magical, and everything around us is this amazing, often confusing, incredible tapestry of Wonder and awe. The world has just ground us down so much that we feel like wonder is strictly for children, that we're not allowed to feel wonder anymore. Embrace the magic. Even if you know how it works.
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Eh, what fireflies can do is kinda the base level of the bioluminescence 'skill' of the evolutionary tech tree.
https://gizmodo.com/glowing-deep-sea-squid-have-a-complex-form-of-communica-1842472534
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DE89YY7zCio
Humboldt squid skin is bioluminiscent, but roughly akin to a flexible lcd or oled screen, with many different 'pixels' capable of being set specifically.
They likely have the ability to communicate by basically displaying different patterns of different colors and brightnesses and translucency, sorta like a human walking around with a sandwich board made of lcd screens, which they can control with a phone app.
They may very well have an entire language they can convey via sequenced or at least specific patterns.
Note: No clue if you can actually trace bioluminescence in fireflies and certain cephalopods to the same common ancestor or if its completely different, independent evolutionary occurances, but my point is there are certainly more and less complex and utility granting forms of bioluminescence.
"I cast 200 ΞΌg Luciferin."
[Dice noises]
"Nat 15. Your abdomen glows and dims slowly and rhythmically."
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Spelling it without help is also magic, so I hear ya.
Fuckin bio-lights how do they work
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Also, people are born every day, and some just go on with their lives never learning about random facts like these. Every day, someone is one of the lucky 10k.
Man, imagine seeing a field of fireflies IRL for the first time, if you had never heard of them before! That would be pretty mindblowing.
I knew about them but didn't see them well into adulthood. It's underwhelming
I feel like fireflies have to be pretty perfectly whelming? like on the level of a swarm of pretty butterflies: cool, but not that cool.
I donβt know man, Iβve seen an actual swarm of butterflies (it took days for them to fly through) and it was pretty fucking awesome.
I think it's just because the only idea I had was from cartoons. They don't exist where I'm from.
They are still eery and cool though.
Really? I'm a seasoned adult-er, and I still get a little flicker of wonder when i see those lights floating in the field behind my house on summer evenings.
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these guys are great!
I was also blown away the first time I've seen bioluminescent bacteria on some strip algae...you would pass your finger by them and see the hidden binary encoded alien messages
One of the cool things about living in Ohio for a couple years, didn't exist in Texas where I was raised.
Also significantly fewer roaches. In my experience they're more common in the south due to the warmer weather
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Different areas have different lightning bugs too. The ones in southern ontario are not the same as the ones in the midwest US.
They have distinct blinking patterns as well. IIRC observing the pattern is one of the ways used to classify them.
and colours!
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Firefly: a lightning bug
Lightning bug: a firefly
Fire bug: an arsonist
Lightning fly: ??? The electric eel of the dragonfly world?
"Is that bat glowing?"
That's no bat. Run!"
[Electrical crackling sounds]
Tried searching YouTube for "fireflies" to watch them in action. 99.9% of the results are music, podcasts and political channels using the term. Think I saw 2 videos of actual fireflies on the first page of results π
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I saw a few lightning bugs in my yard last year. My life goal have them consistently in my yard. Good thing this dovetails nicely with my other life goals of getting butterflies, bumblebees and birds in my yards
Make sure not to bag and toss all the leaves in the fall - leave a bunch in a pile in the corner of your yard. Thats where they like to stay at night
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I have never seen one and I am very jealous :(
Yeah. I once even visited the US South, but it was the wrong time of year or area.
Cocuyo is the name in Cuba π₯Ή
It's been more than 20 years since my wife moved to the west cost and she still laments the lack of fireflies. Where-as, whenever I've been out east, I'm caught off guard by them... then I start singing Roxanne.
You don't have to put on the gold light