Lights Out: Fireflies Face Extinction From Human-Caused Threats

[douglas9]

Fireflies around the world are at risk of extinction due in part to habitat loss, pesticides and shockingly, artificial sources of light, according to new research released Tuesday.

A study published in the journal Bioscience by a Tufts University-led team asked firefly experts to determine what factors predominantly threaten extinction of one of Earth’s most unique insects. Sara Lewis, biology professor at Tufts said the loss of habitat brought about by human development is the most pressing threat.

“Lots of wildlife species are declining because their habitat is shrinking, so it wasn’t a huge surprise that habitat loss was considered the biggest threat,” Lewis said in a statement. “Some fireflies get hit especially hard when their habitat disappears because they need special conditions to complete their life cycle.”

Lewis pointed to a Malaysian firefly species called Pteroptyx tener that survives off of mangrove trees. She said the species’ population is in “drastic declines” following the destruction of mangrove trees for aquaculture and palm oil farms.

https://www.courthousenews.com/lights-out-fireflies-face-extinction-from-human-caused-threats/

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. That's horrible

Fireflies are a spirit animal of mine.
I have loved seeing them lighting up every summer night. I sometimes catch one and let them crawl around on my arm until they fly off. Used to as a kid put some in a jar and let them loose, I left the jar by an open window with the screen up a bit so they could go back outside. Never had a dead Firefly in the morning. I love them.

This hurts like losing the big cats going extinct. The world is dying because of the lie called profit. Profit is theft,and lightning bugs die because of insatiable greed and the destructive extraction of a dying system ( thankfully) of capitalism
We need to move beyond capitalism. ASAP.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Adding a link

Science

World’s fireflies threatened by habitat loss and light pollution, experts warn

Lightning bugs cannot signal to one another to mate if there’s too much light at night.


The common eastern firefly, Photinus pyralis, in flight. (Stephen Marshall)

By Ben Guarino
Feb. 3, 2020 at 12:22 p.m. EST

Nearly 2,000 species of fireflies flit, crawl and sparkle across the planet. Some of these lightning bugs are doing fine. Others are not.

A survey of 49 of the world’s firefly experts, published Monday in the journal BioScience, has identified the most serious threats to the animals. Habitat loss, in almost all of the regions surveyed, is a problem. Other threats include artificial light, which disturbs their mating rituals; pesticides, which can harm the insects or their invertebrate prey; and water pollution, for species that have an aquatic stage.

The report is not a census of the world’s firefly population. But it is “the very first time that we’ve gathered information — this is based on expert opinion — about what the most prominent threats are to the fireflies in different parts of the world,” said study author Sara M. Lewis, a biologist at Tufts University.

{snip}

Ben Guarino
Ben Guarino is a reporter for The Washington Post’s Science section. He joined The Post in 2016. Follow https://twitter.com/bbguari

[Mickju]

3. I haven't seen a lightening bug in many years.

We saw them frequently in the summer when I was growing up in Dallas back in the 50s and 60s.

[NickB79]

4. I've created a prairie wetland in my yard that's a firefly magnet

My basement sump pump feeds into our culvert and ditch in the front yard, and usually kicks on every 5-10 minutes from spring to fall due to a high water table. Every year it would be a swamp. I asked myself why I kept trying to mow this, since I'm on acreage outside city limits and can do whatever I want. So I created a shallow pond ringed with fieldstone and a pebble-lined streambed from the culvert to it, and another streambed leading out of it. Raised beds of fieldstone were planted with native wetland perennials, and drier hillside leading up to the road planted with native prairie perennials and grasses. It's a solid 20' wide and 50' long of unmowed prairie, with plants 5' tall by August. Every year it's filled with bees, butterflies, fireflies, frogs, turtles and birds. I even stock the pond with minnows and goldfish that I overwinter in my basement.

I'm going to be enlarging it this summer to 100' long, as well as adding prairie to the other side of my yard.