Growing up in the Country

Lightning bugs....Have you ever wondered about the small, blinking creatures that light up summer nights?  Fireflies are easy to locate. Go outside at different times during the evening and watch for small twinkling lights in the air. Good places to find fireflies are over meadows or lawns and at the edge of woods or streams. Fireflies are carnivorous. They eat other insects, small animals in the soil and snails.

The summer evening light shows that you see are performed by male fireflies. They flash patterns of light to females. The females signal in response from perches in or near the ground. When the male sees the female's flash he continues to signal and moves closer. Eventually, through a series of flashes, they find each other.

The light given off by fireflies during their abdominal flashes is called bioluminescence. It happens when oxygen and the organic compound luciferin react together in the presence of the enzyme, lucifereace. This creates light. You can easily catch lightening bugs.  Watch for the flashes of light and follow it.  They don't bite either, just collect them in a jar.  When you have a dozen or so, they really light up the jar, be sure to put some grass, leaves or sticks in the jar too.  Let them go after an hour or so, don't leave them in the jar overnight, they won't survive and they really stink!  

We use to do this a lot during the summer nights in the hills of Tennessee.  I hope you get the chance to see them where you live too.  I'll be sharing more childhood delights in the future.  Life in the country was a wonderful time as a child.