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Data-gathering effort tracks fireflies

Posted Sep 8, 2010 by Jeff Scullin

Updated Sep 8, 2010 at 11:09 AM

Volunteers across the country are winding down an ambitious data-gathering project aimed at tracking the numbers of fireflies, which anecdotal accounts suggest may be declining. Scientists suspect several elements of the human footprint – pesticides and fertilizers that kill what the firefly larvae feed on, glaring streetlights that may interfere with mating and the destruction of meadows and fields that serve as firefly habitat – may be reducing the numbers of these insects that light up our summertime skies.

Firefly Watch, a partnership among The Museum of Science in Boston, Tufts University and Fitchburg State University, has organized about 700 volunteers across the country every summer since 2008 to record firefly sightings in their communities. The results are tracked in an online database. Most of the data-gathering seems to be going on across the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast, according to the Firefly Watch’s interactive map.

There are even a few sightings in Florida. This month, for example, there’s one sighting from Holiday (one firefly spotted at 10:15 p.m. Sept. 6), along with two sightings in the Panhandle and another sighting north of Gainesville. You can track the sightings for every month the project has been in operation.

The article on the project that ran over the weekend sparked a conversation where a colleague and I wondered if we’d ever seen fireflies in Florida. I’m not sure I have, though you’ll find a handful of Bay area sightings in the Firefly Watch database this year – one in Sarasota in May, plus a few in Lakeland and Ruskin in April. Compared to the sightings logged in other parts of the country, though, ours are few and far between.

How about you? Are fireflies lighting up the skies in your neighborhood?