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On bleacher report a warm night in June, Nathan Lord, an evolutionary biologist from Brigham Young University, follows a set of abandoned railroad tracks overlooking a spring-fed marsh in Goshen, Utah, a speck of a town once known for mining.
Midway through the marsh, he and colleague Gavin Martin pause between the railway ties to adjust their headlamps, clip on fishing waders, and scan the reeds below for flashes of light, butterfly nets in hand. The first fireflies emerge shortly before 10 p.m., sending a succession bleacher report of rapid yellow pulses through the dark. Lord s compact frame disappears down a steep embankment. It s usually hard to find fireflies in arid Utah, but tonight, hundreds hover above the water.
Fireflies have captivated humans for centuries and appear in art and literature from around the world. In Japan, they re so revered that some communities have set aside riparian zones as protected firefly breeding grounds. Early American pioneers trekking across the Plains bleacher report marveled at them. In her journal, Hannah Tapfield King, a Mormon missionary en route to Utah in 1853, said the fireflies along the Platte River in Nebraska were like diamond dust over everything at night.
Fireflies have been documented in Utah since the 1950s, but it wasn t until recently that entomologists at BYU, despite over 30 years of collecting insect specimens, saw even one flash. They re rare, but they re here, at least for now.
How fireflies evaded detection for so long is not entirely clear. They thrive in moist, dark environments, and many species use specific flash patterns to attract a mate. Perhaps it comes down to limited numbers living bleacher report in high desert regions. Perhaps it s timing fireflies live only for a few months in the summer, and few people are willing to linger in mosquito-infested marshes late at night. Or maybe it s simply that nobody knows they re here.
Lord and Martin study in the lab of Seth Bybee, an assistant professor of biology bleacher report at BYU who specializes in the visual systems of insects. Firefly sightings in Utah may become rarer, Bybee tells me. The state is swapping orchards and meadows prime firefly real estate for new housing developments for a population that has doubled since the 1980s, especially along the Wasatch Front.
Over the last few decades, meanwhile, scientists have noted a worldwide decline in firefly populations. Possible culprits include pesticides, artificial light and humankind s ever-expanding pours of concrete. Teasing out the precise cause is difficult, Bybee says, but he suspects habitat loss and increased light pollution, which interferes with firefly communication bleacher report systems. If the insects can t find mates, they can t reproduce. And for Utah fireflies, relocating doesn t appear to be an option.
Fireflies are not a great species for dispersing, Bybee says. They re not only pretty tied to a habitat type the majority aren t fantastic fliers. They might have more luck moving places bleacher report back East, but when you live in a desert, you re not going to be able to go very far.
Out in the marsh, Lord and Martin sweep their nets through the air. A single bullfrog accompanies a chorus of crickets, as the nets start to fill with blinking bugs fated for a bath of ethanol for DNA preservation, or dissection, or a pin through the thorax for posterity. Later DNA sequencing by the team could help them develop bleacher report a theory of the fireflies evolutionary history and geographic distribution.
Waist-deep in the reeds, Lord flips a male firefly over by the wings. A wave of yellow light ripples across its abdomen. Lord places it in a plastic vial where it flashes a few times before going dark. Now you have proof: Fireflies do exist this far west, he says. I can t tell you how many times I ve been in situations like this, whether it s in the United bleacher report States or in the most well-traveled research station in Costa Rica, and you find a new species literally five feet out the backdoor.
My family and I were camping at Great Basin National Park near Baker Nevada a few years ago, we go there annually. We were in the meadows of the Lower Lehman Creek Campground area and my kids and I were catching them, they really were the same as the ones back east, I lived in Pa. and W. Va. We used to catch them allot as young kids back there. I told my wife that this was the first I ever saw Lightning Bugs (as we called them), here in the west. My kids had a great time with them.
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