By Linda Lombardi, Associated Press In parts of the world where firefly populations have been monitored for a long time, such as Japan, their numbers are down. And scientists think the same might be true in the United States. “You hear people saying, growing up I saw fireflies all the time, now I don’t see them anymore,” says Christopher Cratsley, a professor at Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts who studies them. Are fireflies disappearing? Answering that question is part of the goal of Firefly Watch, based at the Museum of Science in Boston. In the first year of the program last year, more than 1,400 people provided their own observations from as far away from Boston as Texas, Kansas and even India. Contributing to Firefly Watch takes just a few minutes a week, but there’s a lot to learn about these creatures. Start with the fact that they’re not flies, they’re beetles. … In places where firefly populations have dwindled, it seems increasing development is to blame. Some species with aquatic larvae in southeast Asia have declined by 70 percent in the last three years due to water pollution … Fireflies are sensitive to habitat disturbance and to moisture levels in the soil, and other human activities may affect them as well. For example, researchers suspect that artificial light, like streetlights, has an impact on their ability to find each other and mate, which may affect either total numbers or the diversity of species. …
Are fireflies leaving? via Apocadocs
