This short post is dedicated to MMM, you finally get the post
If one looks out of their house at night during the summer they may be blessed with a sight to behold. Little flickers of light may dash across the surface. These lights are not UFOs but fireflies.
The geography of fireflies is one that just goes to show insects rule the world. The range of fireflies extends as far north as Greenland down to almost everywhere south excluding the tip of South America and all of Antarctica.
Out of 2,000 species of fireflies, 1,200 are in the Western Hemisphere and 123 are found in the United States. The height of the American firefly season is late June to late July but various species are active as early as April or late as October.
Americans use the term firefly and lightning bug. Lightning bug is the prefered term down in the Southern states while firefly is used elsewhere.
3 comments:
I liked the firefly blog. Tell us more! MMM
mapping the lightning bug/firefly line may provide the best approximation of where the South ends and the North begins.
glad to see you worked this in.
Interesting map, although I dispute the data, seeing as that I've lived in the west most of my life and have never seen a firefly (or lightning bug) on this side of the continent. I've lived in New Mexico, Washington and Oregon, and have visited all the other western states and the last time I saw a firefly was when I was 7 and lived in Ohio.
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