Welcome to the Firefly Blitz 2024!
Thanks for checking out and joining the Firefly Blitz 2024 project!
Why create a new iNaturalist project for fireflies in the United States?
After all, there is already the Fireflies of the USA and Canada project, the Mass Audubon Firefly Watch project, and the more regional Fireflies of the Midwest project.
These projects have filtered lightning bug observations after the fact, but didn't actively foster a sense of community or connect fireflyers with feedback or resources that could improve the quality and value of their observations. Surveying for, documenting, and identifying firefly species can be a daunting task, and have more success if we pool our knowledge and learn from each other. Time windows for finding adult fireflies of a given species can also be so short, so it helps to have reminders of which species to look out for when, and what habitats to be checking.
The Firefly Blitz 2024 is intended to compliment the Xerces Society's Firefly Atlas, which provides more detailed survey protocols, data- sheets, information on focal species of conservation concern, and a data submission portal. Unlike iNaturalist, the Firefly Atlas collect absence (non-detection) data and effort information. While cross-posting can sometimes create confusion by creating duplicate records, we encourage folks to use both iNaturalist and Firefly Atlas-- just make a note of the cross-posting.
Ready to step up your fireflying/lightning bugging?
Try to do the following things when observing fireflies:
- Take a photo of underside (use a clear container or plastic bag).
- Use a ruler or the Firefly Atlas data-sheet to show the length of the lightning bug (mm are best).
- Add some habitat notes, beyond what someone might glean from satellite view on the map.
- Tell us the air temperature, even if it's approximate
For flashing fireflies:
- Note whether the flashes are repeated in basic units of 1, 2, or 3-9 flashes
- Note the time intervals at which flash patterns are repeated and the spacing of flashes within multi-flash flash patterns
- Tell us when the flashing occurred in relation to sunset
Doing these things will improve the chances of being able to identify the firefly to species and will make your observations more useful to others!
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