Lightning Bugs

My distant cousins and one of their Mom’s, my Aunt Pat, held a family reunion this weekend and I was feeling bummed about being unable to go. I looked (lurked) on Face Book and saw some of their posts about how excited they were, their safe travel wishes to each other, and camping on the shores of Lake Superior and I got to wondering if they saw any lightning bugs. Whether you call them fireflies, or lightning bugs they are all the same little nocturnal beetles that never fail to delight me and make me smile over childhood memories of catching them. Lightning bugs are widespread and can be found on hot summer nights in many places all over the world. They have a life span of about two months. They use their signature blinking bioluminescence patterns unique to each species for attracting potential mates and kids up late, past their school days bedtimes. I remember pulling them apart and smearing their squished abdomens on my face like war paint that glowed in the dark, though not as long as glow sticks, but long enough to scare my twin brother. A more humane memory is one of keeping captured lightning bugs in a glass jar with some hastily harvested blades of grass tucked in there and holes in the lid under my bed only to find they’d escaped in the night. Either the holes were too big allowing them to crawl out or someone who consoled me as I cried over the dead ones in the jar from the night before set them free. I’d like to think the latter now even though I remember swearing my sister to silence over their escape knowing my mother would be extremely unhappy if she found bugs on the loose inside our house.

Over the years, I've seen lightning bugs in not only in Michigan and northern states but also in Florida, Georgia, and on Andros Island, Bahamas. I hope some made an appearance at the family reunion too.