Update - We've Been Busy!

It’s been awhile since our last lab note, but we definitely haven’t been lollygagging around! 

This summer we’ve collected Photinus pyralis fireflies and worked with PacBio to find the best, most cost-effective sequencing platform. Soon we’ll be submitting the firefly DNA for sequencing! Stay tuned for more details in our next lab report….

Meanwhile, team members have also been working on firefly conservation. Worldwide, firefly populations now face three major threats:

1. Habitat Loss – This is the biggest threat to fireflies; due to their poor dispersal ability, if their habitat is destroyed fireflies unlikely to relocate elsewhere. In many parts of the U.S., development and suburban sprawl are gobbling up and paving over the forests, fields, and marshes where fireflies once thrived. And in southeast Asia, mangrove forests are being cut down and replaced with shrimp aquaculture farms and oil palm plantations.

2. Light Pollution – Excessive night illumination is known to disrupt the lives of many nocturnal creatures. And fireflies are especially sensitive to light pollution because it interferes with their luminous mating signals. 

3. Overharvesting – In China, some 10 million wild-caught fireflies were released last year to entertain visitors at nature theme parks or sold online during the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day. These harvest levels are unsustainable; once removed from their native habitat, firefly adults won't successfully reproduce.  Even in some parts of the U.S., fireflies are still being commercially harvested for their light-producing chemicals.

But do we really need fireflies? After all, they’re just one small bit of Earth’s biodiversity. Yet every time a firefly species is lost, it’s like extinguishing a roomful of candles, one by one. You might not notice when the first few flames flicker out, but in the end you’re left sitting in darkness.

You can read some of our recent articles on firefly conservation at Aeon and CNN.