I wish I could capture the absolutely amazingly beautiful lightshow I saw last night to share with you. Unfortunately, my cell phone camera just doesn’t do super well with night shots (despite the “night vision” setting). Hence, the mostly black looking image in the header…
Just try to imagine instead of the handful of flashes that show up in the image, hundreds and hundreds of those little flashes. So bright that the landscape is almost dimly lit by them – like a low-grade lighting flash in a storm. A very beautiful storm.
All of these little bright flashes are lightning bugs. Or fireflies. Maybe even glowworms, depending on the part of the county you grew up in. They are a type of beetle in the family Lampyridae. Many species of lightning bugs are capable of producing bioluminescence in the ends of their abdomens, aka their butts. Each species actually has a different pattern of flashes. They use this amazing ability to light up after dark to attract mates. Well, except for a few species that just pretend to be looking for mates, but are actually predatory lightning bugs looking to trick the mate seekers into becoming a free meal…
I’ve had lightning bugs in all the places I’ve lived before, just not in these numbers. Not with these amazing light shows… Just spectacular!
Still can’t really see all the tiny little lights that well, but here’s a video anyway of these amazing creatures lighting up the night… Enjoy :)
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