If invertebrates are mostly unheralded workers that keep life on Earth ticking over, then fireflies are the rare flamboyant stars that help make that life worth living. They are Elton John in platform shoes and outlandish glasses at his piano, they are Sabrina Carpenter in a glamorous dress as she drops her towel on stage.
Much like a Hollywood starlet who lounges around all day in a dressing gown eating crisps only to emerge later in stunning fashion on the red carpet, fireflies are creatures of the night, where their spectacular light shows both enchant and confound us.
These displays, a semaphore of love and attraction, differ across species and location. Perhaps the most awe-inspiring of the more than 2,000 species found around the world is the amber comet, Pyractomena vexillaria, which is only thought to remain in a few isolated patches of Texas and Mexico.
While some fireflies emit just a few short bleeps of light, the amber comet gives off something akin to a supernova. Ben Pfeiffer, a firefly researcher, was stunned to see this display a couple of years ago while idling beside a river in central Texas, a state where the insect hadn’t been seen since the 1940s.
The burning bright flash of light, followed by a trailing glow, was so intense it illuminated the grass around it. “All the other fireflies stopped flashing for about five seconds because it was so bright,” Pfeiffer said. “It was the coolest thing.”
Victoria-era Britons likened fireflies to fairies, native Americans saw them as spiritual messengers, in Italy a firefly in the house is a sign of divine good luck. Their magic is wondrous but has also been something of a mystery – it’s only in the last few decades where scientists have fully understood how fireflies are able to deploy bioluminescence, when luciferin, luciferase and oxygen interact in the “lantern” of their abdomen, for their light shows.
It’s also, more sadly, only recently that we’ve realized what trouble fireflies are in. The amber comet is emblematic of this – much of its range in Mexico has been converted to agriculture, while housing and roads are now plonked onto its favored riparian areas in Texas, pushing the species towards extinction.
Globally, fireflies – their relatives glowworms are better known in the UK, although all of these creatures are not flies nor worms but beetles – are part of a broader decline of insect life. We risk losing delight, as well as utility. So let’s vote for beauty, vote for dazzle, vote for the closest thing to fairies we have in this often benighted world. Vote amber comet.
Voting to choose invertebrate of the year is now open: vote here by midday UK time on Friday 4 April, and the heroic winner will be announced on Monday 7 April
