synchronous fireflies

[darkoshi]

How can I have lived here this long, without having heard about this phenomenon before?

Synchronized fireflies lighting skies at Congaree National Park

Comments

[cathugger]

WOW. Definitely going to have to see this one day.

[darkoshi]

I went to the park tonight with my mom. It was rather crowded. There wasn't very much synchronous flashing going on that I could see, but it was still very magical to watch. I'll probably write a post about it this weekend.

[randomdreams]

I have a friend who is doing graduate work on click beetles, which not only synchronize flashes, they have two colors of flashes, and apparently use them for communication.

[darkoshi]

::looks up click beetles and sees picture:: Oh! That's what those bugs are called. Once in a while I get one in the house and have to catch it in order to set it free outside.

[randomdreams]

Oh, wow! I've never seen one in the wild. (far too cold and dry here.) I thought you were in Michigan, but are you further south?

[darkoshi]

Columbia, South Carolina (very near to the Congaree park mentioned in that article). Besides looking like the picture, when I catch one of them (using a clear plastic container), they usually jump and make a loud snapping sound, so it makes sense for them to be called "click" beetles. Sometimes they'll make the sound before I notice them. It's a scary sound (at least in conjunction with a loose bug ricocheting from the walls), so that makes me want to catch them and get them out right away.

[darkoshi]

But I've never seen them flash before. Maybe the ones here don't do that, or it would only be visible in the dark.

[randomdreams]

There are a lot of species, and some don't flash, and some apparently only flash when it's dark and they're In The Mood.

[randomdreams]

My friend is trying to locate them, but she's in Texas, so the information that they're in SC is only kinda useful to her. And, yeah, they're super clicky.