It's a week away from fall, but don’t tell that to the lightning bugs. The fireflies are here now and they’re sneakier than they may seem.
Molly Keck, an entomologist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, says it’s very unusual to see a second wave of lightning bugs this late in the summer.
"If you think about it, we had pretty good rain for two springs in a row, 2016 and ’15, and that gave us so many in the early summer and maybe allowed us to—either it’s a second generation, or maybe it’s another species that’s coming out later," she says. "The moisture allows the eggs not to dry out, and so when it rains a lot they stay nice and moist and you have more hatching out."
Lightning bugs have gotten a bad rap in some parts that they serve no ecological function. The myth is that nothing eats them. Keck says it is true that they have a toxin in them which makes them bitter, but she says some things do eat them. Keck says they serve a greater ecological function by what they eat, including insects considered pests.
"They eat other insects," Keck says. "Some species actually eat other larvae of other lightning bugs. So they’re neat. They flash and trick other species of lightning bugs to think it’s them and then they eat ‘em when they catch them."
But they don’t just trick ‘em any which way. Keck says each species has its own flash pattern for attracting a mate. The firefly will mimic the other species flash in just that way attracting the opposite sex…and then 'BAM' they got dinner.
Keck says if you want to see lightning bugs, the best place to look is somewhere where there’s dense vegetation and forest and a clearing.
