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Hi Stephen & All,
Another aspect which I have not noticed in these exchanges is that
many (most ?) insects spend much sheltering; in soil, under bark, in
litter....or sunning, waiting for favorable flying or feeding
conditions, waiting for a snack to fly past. Or perhaps just resting or
sunning and digesting their last snack.
YT, DW, Kentville
On 6/6/2020 5:28 PM, Stephen Shaw wrote:
> It might be of further interest to the several commentators on
> fireflies that there’s a fairly recent, sturdy, compact,
> well-illustrated book “Fireflies, Glow-worms and Lightning Bugs” by
> Lynn Frierson Faust (2017, Univ Geogia Press, ISBN 978-0-8203-4872-8,
> paperback, 356 pages). 2000 species world wide, 125+ in N America. A
> ‘dark' or ‘black' firefly (sounds oxymoronic) referred to earlier
> actually means that the beetle is in the same taxonomic/ phylogenetic
> group as others which are true flashers, but it itself doesn’t produce
> any light. Nice birthday present book to dip into, which is how I
> received it — Amazon lists it for Cdn$43.
>
> Range/date info is given in the book for each species covered, but the
> book is not organized this way to allow you to narrow species down.
> Flasher Photuris fairchildi (species named for A.G. Bell’s
> entomologist grandson, and part of the P. versicolor complex) is found
> in Maritimes including NS in June and preys upon flasher Pyractomena
> borealis, which starts to fly in NS even earlier in the year. One or
> other might be Pat’s species, but no guarantee at all: we could use
> the expert local views of e.g. Chris Majka or Andrew Hebda, but I’m
> not sure that either still subscribes to NatureNS.
> Steve
> ------------------------------------------------------
> On Jun 6, 2020, at 2:53 PM, Patrick Kelly <Patrick.Kelly@Dal.Ca
> <mailto:Patrick.Kelly@Dal.Ca>> wrote:
>> A good point!
>>
>> I think what I should have noted was that as an amateur astronomer, I
>> spend a fair bit of time outside in the dark for most of the year.
>> Having spent 30 years at this location, I have never seem any
>> fireflies in June, late July being the earliest. If we do have a
>> species that is an "early bird", they must be having a great year!
>>
>> Pat
>>
>>
>> On Jun 6, 2020, at 9:03 AM, Rick Whitman wrote:
>>
>>> CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie.
>>>
>>> It's important to remember that there are at least several species.
>>> So while we may recall when the most common species comes out
>>> (whichever that is) we don't remember the secondary species. And
>>> populations of each species can vary a lot year to year. Our
>>> displays have always been poor compared to what you can see in the
>>> lower 2/3 of the US or the tropics.
>>> As laypeople, we tend to talk about "blackflies", "mosquitoes",
>>> "ladybeetles" or "fireflies" as if there was one species of each.
>>> This is pretty far from reality as we have a number, or many,
>>> species of each of these, as well as most other insects that we name
>>> generically. And, of course, with natural selection EACH species has
>>> its own unique life history and time of occurrence throughout the 6
>>> or 8 decent months.
>>> Regards,
>>> Rick.
>>>
>>> On Fri, 5 Jun 2020 at 22:48, Patrick Kelly <Patrick.Kelly@dal.ca
>>> <mailto:Patrick.Kelly@dal.ca>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I was out around 10:30 PM last night... as I was looking for the
>>> Starlink satellites to pass overhead.... On my way down to the
>>> nearby cemetery, I saw two flashes from a firefly.... and now
>>> there are a few flashing in my backyard..... I have seen
>>> fireflies here in the past, and where I grew up in Spryfield,
>>> but only in August and and even then, only on really warm still
>>> nights.....
>>>
>>> Is it normal for them to be active at this time of the year?
>>>
>>> Pat
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Patrick Kelly
>>> 159 Town Road
>>> Falmouth NSB0P 1L0
>>> Canada
>>>
>>> (902) 472-2322
>>>
>>
>>
>> Patrick Kelly
>> 159 Town Road
>> Falmouth NSB0P 1L0
>> Canada
>>
>> (902) 472-2322
>>
>
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<p>Hi Stephen & All,</p>
<p> Another aspect which I have not noticed in these exchanges is
that many (most ?) insects spend much sheltering; in soil, under
bark, in litter....or sunning, waiting for favorable flying or
feeding conditions, waiting for a snack to fly past. Or perhaps
just resting or sunning and digesting their last snack. <br>
</p>
<p>YT, DW, Kentville<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/6/2020 5:28 PM, Stephen Shaw
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2739681B-E4A4-4FBE-9728-07462FA599C5@dal.ca">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
It might be of further interest to the several commentators on
fireflies that there’s a fairly recent, sturdy, compact,
well-illustrated book “Fireflies, Glow-worms and Lightning Bugs”
by Lynn Frierson Faust (2017, Univ Geogia Press, ISBN
978-0-8203-4872-8, paperback, 356 pages). 2000 species world
wide, 125+ in N America. A ‘dark' or ‘black' firefly (sounds
oxymoronic) referred to earlier actually means that the beetle is
in the same taxonomic/ phylogenetic group as others which are true
flashers, but it itself doesn’t produce any light. Nice birthday
present book to dip into, which is how I received it — Amazon
lists it for Cdn$43.
<div&g