For a few weeks in late spring, thousands of fireflies emerge at the Congaree National Park in South Carolina to blink in synchrony. Scientists are trying to learn their secrets and to protect them.
Synchronous fireflies, known as Photuris frontalis, blink in the woods near the Congaree River on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Congaree National Park holds an annual event for visitors to view the fireflies, which blink for a few weeks every May and June.Hrudaya Reddy and her husband Shiva Vanamala traveled here from San Francisco, Calif. Vanamala says he recalls seeing swarms of fireflies in a forest as a child in Karnataka, India.
Firefly researcher Lynn Frierson Faust came to the park to view the synchronous fireflies. Decades ago, she helped researchers learn about synchronous firefly species in the U.S. The behavior is thought to be an elaborate ritual by the males to get the ladies to notice them. As they fly low over the ground, flashing their lights, “they’re basically saying, ‘Hi, I’m afirefly, I’m a male, and I would like to mate. They’re looking for a response from a female,” Peleg says.
At first, the flashing seems random. “As the sun sets, you’ll start seeing little flickers here and there,” Peleg says. “ you’ll see more and more fireflies coming out – perhaps a hundred flashes in your field of view.” As more fireflies join in, it becomes So the Congaree started a lottery system in 2021, and now limits visitors to about 400 people each night to see the fireflies at their peak. It's modeled after one at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park – where another species of synchronous firefly,Visitors, carrying red flashlights, look for fireflies at Congaree National Park on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Hopkins, S.C. The red lights are less disturbing to the insects than regular white lights.
To look for fireflies, find a place away from light and away from any insect spraying, says Faust. In the eastern and central U.S., they’re usually most active in June, though their peak periods are temperature-dependent.
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