The Science of Fireflies’ Illumination | A Scientific Explanation

In the dark of a June evening, Christopher Heckscher stood in the black mud of a New Jersey bog, alert to any flicker of light. He is an explorer, though this wilderness lies in one of the most densely populated regions of the United States: the Northeast megalopolis. And now, as pale stars appeared from behind the clouds, he needed one more firefly. Heckscher, a professor at Delaware State University, is an ornithologist who studies thrushes, sparrows and other migrating songbirds. But he has also been publishing papers about fireflies for almost 20 years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Heckscher focused on his favorite insect close to his home region. He joined with other North American members of an international panel of firefly experts, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission Firefly Specialist Group, to determine which firefly species are closest to extinction, using extinction risk criteria from the IUCN, which maintains a worldwide record of threatened species known as the Red List.

The group concluded that 18 firefly species are threatened, but the major takeaway was that scientists know surprisingly little about the 170 or so named firefly species in the U.S. and Canada. “We had to call over half of the species we assessed ‘data deficient,’” says Candace Fallon, a conservation biologist, who co-led the analysis. “We are still in this information-gathering phase,” Fallon says. “We are still figuring out what species we have in the U.S. and where they occur.”

Heckscher is working to fill that data gap. Colleagues say he’s a rarity. “There just aren’t that many people who are out in the New Jersey wetlands during the right time of night and who are able to distinguish one species of firefly from another,” says Sara Lewis, a professor at Tufts University and a co-chair of the IUCN firefly group. In the world of firefly conservation, Heckscher’s explorations are, she says, “extremely exciting.”

Once thought extinct, the Bethany Beach firefly in Delaware was found by Heckscher in a tiny wetland. In 2004, Heckscher discovered a new firefly species in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which he named Photuris mysticalampas. He has since been searching for elusive fireflies, particularly in pristine and unusual wetlands. The genus of fireflies that Heckscher studies, the Photuris, are particularly difficult to identify. Many other types of fireflies can be identified through physical characteristics.

 

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Denial of responsibility! TechCodex is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.