Just had my first firefly encounter this season and was instantly reminded of that great NY Times article published a few years ago: Blink Twice If You Like Me. In it, Carl Zimmer highlights research on flash patterns and mating rituals done by Dr. Sara Lewis, an evolutionary ecologist at Tufts University. I highly recommend reading or re-reading it.
Fun fact to remember: Fireflies flashing in the air are all males. The females sit down in the grass observing, looking for flash patterns of males of their own species. They will sometimes respond with a single flash of their own, always at a precise interval after the male’s.
5 comments:
i saw my first FF the day i read this! exciting. they are so cute!
:-) So that makes at least two people who will be out blinking flash lights in hopes for a FF lit field this summer :-)
haven't seen any yet...was begining to wonder if my yard doesn't have them
Hmmm... I bet you see some soon.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/06/15/us/100000000866518/the-smokies-light-show.html
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