Fall is making itself known in many parts of the country—shorter days, cooler nights, and leaves tinged crimson and gold. These same leaves will begin tumbling earthward in the coming weeks, carpeting our yards, parks, and walkways with nature’s crinkliest confetti. What is leaf litter? Leaf litter is the layer of organic matter—including fallen twigs, …
Candace Fallon, Senior Endangered Species Conservation Biologist It’s a couple hours before sunset, and I’m zigzagging back and forth across a wide sandy trail behind my friend Becca, scanning the rocks and plants on either side for insects. Tiny checkerspot butterflies flit by. Common side-blotched lizards scamper across boulders, blue scales glinting in the light. …
Candace Fallon, Senior Endangered Species Conservation Biologist The Golden State: land of sunshine, milk and honey, and… fireflies? Yes! But probably not the kind you’re picturing. When most people think of fireflies, they imagine warm summer nights filled with blinking lights. While that’s true in many parts of the country, including several western states like …
With the fall equinox just behind us, the adult firefly season has come to an end across most of the US and Canada. However, that doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to fireflies just yet! Fall is an ideal time to look for an entirely different stage of the firefly life cycle—the larvae. This …
Are you in training to become a Master Naturalist, or looking for a new project to undertake as part of your annual certification requirements? Many Master Naturalist programs require 30-40 hours of volunteer work each year. We might be biased, but we think participating in the Firefly Atlas and related conservation efforts is an excellent …
Candace Fallon, Senior Endangered Species Conservation Biologist If you submit data to the Firefly Atlas, you might be wondering what becomes of that information. You likely know that we are crowdsourcing data to better understand firefly distributions, seasonality, habitat associations, and more. But what does that mean in practice? And who has access to this …
By Candace Fallon, Senior Endangered Species Conservation Biologist I’ll cut straight to the chase: reality. Fireflies in the Pacific Northwest are very real, although they may not quite match up to the image you have in your mind. Nineteen species of fireflies have been reported from the Pacific Northwest, which we are defining here to …
By Candace Fallon, Senior Endangered Species Conservation Biologist Whenever someone asks me why I’m visiting southern Arizona in the summer, and I tell them it’s for firefly surveys, they look at me blankly. Fireflies? Here? No way. In the desert? No. East Coast, sure. Midwest, absolutely. But Arizona? Perhaps Arizona is not the first place …
Henry Brean, Arizona Daily Star | “Each year in late spring, the forest fills with fireflies that flash in unison at Great SmokyMountains National Park. The synchronous show draws so many spectators to western Tennessee that the park service has to hold a lottery to limit the number of vehicles in the area at the …
Seth Borenstein, Associated Press | “On a muggy July evening, Delaware state biologist Jason Davis is doing what kids have done for ages: Trying to catch a firefly. It’s nowhere near as easy as the summer evenings of his own childhood, with only a few in this large wetland between a bay and the Atlantic …
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