Save the Fireflies!

Fireflies are disappearing.

We can help by volunteering each summer for "Firefly Watch" where citizen scientists team up with researchers from the Museum of Science (Boston, Massachusetts, USA).  Museum researchers team up with researchers from Tufts University and Fitchburg State College to monitor fireflies. 

All volunteers have to do is sign up at https://legacy.mos.org/fireflywatch/  and try to watch fireflies in their yards once a week.

Their website has a great "Virtual Habitat" section where you can see the simulated flash colors and patterns in action at night--the colors and patterns that distinguish the three main groups of fireflies.

The site advises covering a flashlight with a blue lens cover to see the fireflies whether they are flashing or not.

I haven't participated yet but long ago I bought red and blue "plastic film" at an art supply store and cut circles to fit a cheap flashlight lantern with a screw on cover to get ready for the firefly watch.  This way I get a strong, broad light and I can put in the blue circle and remove it easily.  I use the red film to watch other wildlife without scaring them at night.

I'm writing this tonight because the season has started for me in central Ohio, having seen my first male firefly flash tonight while I was throwing out garbage.  (The males patrol and flash, while females perch, waiting for the right signal.)

I might do my first firefly watch tomorrow.