Even if you did find one, the adults don’t light up so you’re unlikely to care. However, they hide in the bark of trees so you’re unlikely to come across one. There is a species of North American firefly that thrives through winter. If you want to catch the light show, late June and early July are your best bets. They’re not the most active in June and July, necessarily, that’s just the time of year when they’re the most prominent. The firefly lifespan is only a couple of months and so you’re seeing generations over the course of the summer. Generally speaking, it’s June and July when the fireflies are mating that you see the most of them.īut it’s somewhat deceptive to think the beetles – they’re not bugs – are more active in these months. The best times to see an adult firefly would be in the middle of the mating season when the nocturnal insects – we’ll get back to that later – are in the midst of hunting for potential mates. They like moist areas and warm summer nights. and Hawaii, the extended season runs from May to November. However, their numbers are generally greater in June and July (infographic by Morgan Overholt/) What months are fireflies most active?įor most of the United States, including the Smokies, the lightning bug season is May to August. In tropical climates (in the southern United States) lightning bug season may extend to early November. They are one of only a couple species in North America whose individuals are known to synchronize their flashing light patterns.” In temperate and subtropical climates, lightning bug/firefly season runs from May-August. “Synchronous fireflies (Photinus carolinus) are one of at least 19 species of fireflies that live in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But the Smokies have fireflies, right?īoy howdy, do they? They’ve got fireflies coming out the ying-yang although they’re more likely to be called lightning bugs.Īctually, the Smokies have what are likely the most famous lightning bugs in the world per the National Park Service: Read Also: Fireflies vs lightning bugs: Is there a difference? Synchronous Fireflies in the Smokies Who is it that’s asking the internet if lightning bugs still exist? It’s people from the East who grew up with lightning bugs filling the night sky who have moved West where they only have creepy, ground-dwelling fireflies who barely light up. Still, I think we’ve found the answer to our Google mystery. Out West, it’s the adult females that glow, but only while they’re on the ground, and very faintly – so faintly their glow is hardly detectable even to a human eye fully adapted to the dark.” However, they are much more difficult to detect out West.Īccording to the Smithsonian, “among Eastern species, males flash while they’re in flight to attract females those species don’t live farther west than Kansas, except for a few isolated populations. The short answer is yes – there are lightning bugs all over the continental United States. While fireflies can be found throughout the continental United States, there are only a handful of places where they can be easily spotted (photo by Elgin Akin/) Are lightning bugs everywhere in the US? In fact, when my buddy from Oregon told me they didn’t have lightning bugs growing up, it darn near blew my mind, possibly because he was at least partially wrong per the Smithsonian. I was grown before I learned there are places in the United States where they were less common. I have always lived in areas that have plenty of lightning bugs. In a nutshell, yes, lightning bugs still exist. You thought they went extinct? Did you think entire firefly populations were being wiped out?ĭo you think that somewhere there’s a flying Beetle-obsessed John Hammond trying to extract lightning bug DNA from amber to create a bold new natural world that will rise up and spawn multiple movies starring Jeff Goldblum?Ĭlearly, I’ve given this a lot of thought. How is that a question? How is that a question enough people asked that it was the top result for “Do lightning Bugs…?” While typing in a question, the always helpful Google predictive text finished for me: “Do lightning bugs … still exist?” Do lightning bugs still exist? However, in preparing to write, I did a little Googling and was distracted by the kind of insanity that can only exist in the digital realm of the internet. Have you ever really sat down and considered the worm? I had planned to start by ruminating on the strange nature of things we take for granted.
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