Lorelei Heath
Mr. Ippolito
Biology - Current Event 2
October 1, 2020
“Inside the Secret Lives of Synchronous Fireflies.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 23 Sept. 2020, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200923090412.htm
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200923090412.htm
Ever since we were kids, collecting fireflies at night was the best and fun activity to do on summer nights. In 2019 groups of hikers came to visit The Smoky Mountains National Park because of a species of fireflies that put on a spectacular light show. Scientists at first did not understand the cause of these synchronized lights, but then came to a hypothesis: “Rather than flash according to some innate rhythm, the fireflies seem to observe what their neighbors are doing, then adjust their behavior to match.” Scientists like Orit Peleg and Raphael Sarfati, believe these luminous insects are competing for human sources of light. However, the light show doesn’t last long. The species Photinus carolinus only flashes for about a span of two weeks in the month of June. Still today, scientists still don’t know the real explanation of how synchronization works. "Is it something hardwired in fireflies that makes them want to synchronize?" Sarfati said. "Or is it something more context-dependent, may be based on their environment?" With these questions, researchers knew they had to see it for themselves.
When the researchers arrived at The Smoky Mountains National Park, they set up camp. They placed two 360-degree cameras in the wooded forest, “a new technological approach that allowed the team to map out the locations of the bugs flashing in their vicinity.” When they isolated one of the fireflies from the group, they found that the light pattern was completely different. However, when they put twenty together, the insects' lights became the same. That is when the researchers came up with this theory: “...their light displays seem to be more social. Bugs watch what their neighbors are doing and try to follow along.” The researchers found out that the fireflies act the same way the cells in our hearts do and the neurons in our brains, all synchronized.
I, personally, was very surprised and intrigued by this reading. It was very insightful about the happenings of fireflies and the research behind the light show up in The Smoky Mountain National Park. However, I thought the author could have added more information about the data they collected along with the many theories and hypotheses they thought of. I also would have liked to see a comparison of a different species to see how different the photinus carolinus is.
