Are there lightning bugs in south carolina

Keep up with Garden and Gun. Like an orchestra hitting the same staccato note all at once, the males of what Congaree officials believe to be the species Photuris frontali s flash quickly in unison among the old-growth bald cypresses and water tupelos, to woo mates. The Charleston photographer Leigh Webber captured this glowing display last May using a long exposure. The trail begins at the picnic shelter and intersects with Bluff Trail and returns to the Harry Hampton Visitor Center.

Other visitors are asked to use the new trail to view the phenomenon. Visitors to the park and lovers of nature also should be advised that firefly season is the most popular time at the park, so the park advises that visitors familiarize themselves with the following information and etiquette:. This year there will be a designated Fireflies Trail , which will give access to prime viewing areas. Because of the large numbers of participants, the elevated section of the Boardwalk will only be open to those with mobility issues during evening hours to allow those visitors easy access to viewing areas.

Strollers, wagons, etc. We highly recommend that visitors consider not bringing their dogs to the park during the evening hours. Insect repellent will adversely affect fireflies. Exactly how the fireflies coordinate their signalling and achieve synchrony remains a mystery. The insects can signal at roughly the same time across a wide area, even though they can only see the individuals within a short distance of themselves. Sarfati, Hayes, and lab leader Orit Peleg have not yet published research from their May expedition, but they got clues about how dense the insects must be before they start synchronizing and how their signals propagate over long distances.

Learn more: How do these mysterious fireflies synchronize their dazzling light shows? Synchronous phenomena are vital to life as we know it, from the coordinated contractions of the heart to the firing of neurons in the brain. All three scientists have an interest or background in physics and computer science, and work to square mathematical models of synchronous or emergent behavior with what they observe in the wild.

For example, Peleg, Hayes, and Sarfati are all currently studying the synchronous signaling of Photinus carolinus , another firefly species in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.

Unlike snappy syncs, these insects emit a burst of signals before going dark for about six to eight seconds, depending on the temperature and humidity. Then they start up again. The peak for these fireflies is happening right now, in early June. Faust says that the two species, in Congaree and the Smoky Mountains, are very distinctive, not just in their signals—the former being rapid fire, the latter being syncopated with coordinated pauses.

Female snappy syncs have also been shown, like other members of their genus, to sometimes cannibalize males of their own and related species.

The respite from people in these locations not only affords research opportunities—it may actually benefit the insects themselves. Firefly larvae live in the topsoil and leaf litter for a couple years before emerging as adults. Stone says it was still hectic running about Congaree in the near-dark trying to focus cameras and using long exposures that are sensitive to the slightest movement and light. All rights reserved. After dinner, this small group of six began their sunset walk with no particular goal other than to enjoy their surroundings and see what they could discover.

They expected to get back before dark, thus only one dim flashlight accompanied them. Anytime a group of naturalists gets together in an interesting place, time gets away from everyone! Dark was fast approaching. They discussed whether they should backtrack the way they had come or try to complete a loop of uncertain distance. No adventuresome soul enjoys backtracking, so it was quickly decided.

Besides, it is usually much more fun to forge ahead into the unknown, even when it is dark, so they did. Am I imagining it? This is the point of night when most people are inside or at least winding down on their porches. Few are out on the edge of a swamp where the snakes might be grabbing the last little bit of heat on the pathways and where the hungry mosquitoes and gnats are abundant. If people are out, they usually have a bright flashlight or lantern burning, virtually blinding them to their overall surroundings, including the mysterious jiggling lights in the night.

Out loud they wondered what these moving, slightly creepy lights were. Some folks at this point of eerie uncertainty, surrounded by something unknown, would conjure up visions of all the Lowcountry ghost light stories they had ever heard and make a beeline back to safety, and who would blame them?

But this group of seasoned nature lovers quickly discarded the will-o-the-wisp or plat-eye notion as the source of the mysterious lights. The lights swung wildly back and forth at eye level, flickering, briefly glowing. They hovered sometimes. Other times they darted about quickly, then disappearing entirely. The lights reappeared at random intervals somewhere else, always just out of reach. They were surrounded. Tom Jones braved his way into the brambles where the highest density of lights was haphazardly floating and zigzagging through the dark air.

He triumphantly found a more or less stationary glowing cluster on the ground. All were amazed to discover very tiny, grain of rice-sized lightning bugs, like nothing they had ever seen in their childhoods, much smaller and less colorful, and most interestingly, dimly glowing instead of flashing.