1st Winter Firefly, home

The temperature is now pushing into the 50s, and I had an idea: maybe, just maybe, a species of exceedingly early firefly might be out and about. While I normally associate lightning bugs with the first warm nights of June, there's a Winter Firefly, and the amazing beetle is one of those insects that can laugh at the chill. My most recent Lampyrid mentor, Lynn Faust, who's the author of last year's instant classic, Fireflies, Glow-worms, and Lightning Bugs: Identification and Natural History of the Fireflies of the Eastern and Central United States and Canada, schooled me in the behavior of the creatures, which actually go lampless. Look at the abdomen of this female in the bottom picture: this is no fluke... she has no light. Neither does the male of the species Ellychnia corrusca. Instead, the day-active sexes come together as a result of pheromone chemistry and molecular attraction... a cool discovery on a cool day.