Fire-flies

[GlueGuy]

Re: Fire-flies: Mystery resolved

Thought everyone interested to know that the "how" of fireflies was just in the news. Here's an exerpt that came to me via InfoBeat.


*** Researchers solve firefly mystery

WASHINGTON (AP) - Researchers in Massachusetts have solved a longtime mystery about fireflies - discovering a chemical that lightning bugs use to precisely control their flashing signals of summertime romance. To turn their lights on and off, the researchers found that the bugs use nitric oxide, the same chemical that in humans helps the heart beat, aids brain function and triggers the male erection. Barry A. Trimmer, a biology researcher at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., said science has known for years the chemistry of the fireflies' light, but they were puzzled about how 200 species of the insects could create flashes in intricate, individual patterns that differed by fractional seconds. "That has been a long-standing mystery," said Trimmer. The firefly light pattern is a mating signal. Males blink a certain sequence and hope to see an answering flash from a female. Each of the 200 species have their own signal.

Full article



The GlueGuy

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Fire-flies: Mystery resolved

Very.......................very..................interesting...

Thanks!

I think, I'll try flashing some code to my wife {on the mating aspect...} with my Maglite...

As my luck would have it,... she'd hit me over the head with the darn thing.../w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[Bird]

Re: Fire-flies: Mystery resolved

I never realized this topic would generate so much interest; it was even on the noon news on the local NBC TV station today./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[DaveM]

Yes, we have them in my part of NY. Just this past week the numbers have been far greater than I can remember since I was a youngster... about 40years ago. They're way cool! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Dave

 

[Alan L.]

Some of you could probably use that chemical (not me)/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

I saw one lightening bug last night. He wasn't getting any answers.....

Alan L., TX

 

[patrickg]

Re: Fire-flies: Mystery resolved

I have been doubly blessed as I have not only been fortunate enough to have seen many fireflys/lightening bugs but have also seen many examples of the aquatic analog, bioluminescent plankton. Flushing a marine head (at sea in fully legal circumstances) introduces sea water into the toilet bowl and if at night and in season you may see a few little blue comets swirling in the flush water. Quite bright, beautiful, but not flashing on and off so they appear to leave a comet tail, actually an afterimage on your retina. Apparently the turbulance excites them to bioluminescence. (Some of us are easily entertained.)

Of course there are other examples: One would be a glowing wake, especially if motoring rather than sailing. On several occasions I saw what appeared to be a torpedo in the water running just below the surface and headed directly amidships only for it to dive under the keel at the last possible moment and miss the vessel. These occurances were, of course, porpoise whose wake turbulance excited the plankton just as the surf does. I've seen nights at the beach where when a large wave broke you could read the large print of a news paper. I have made night dives, sans lights, where buddies kept trrack of each other by the glow of plankton set off by any disturbance such as making swiming strokes with your hands or kicking a flipper. In general we were dimly outlined by the soft glow but it would be much more intense if you moved any part of you or your gear a bit more quickly and induced some turbulalnce. We likek to think that the torpedo looking things that shot by us from the dark leaving a bright trail in the water and partially outlined in a glow were seals/sealions N O T cousins of JAWS. Would have definitely whistled in the dark if I could but SCUBA regulator interferred.

This helped make up for the lack of fireflys/lightning bugs at sea. Well the fireflys are comming out, gotta go.

Patrick

 

[Harv]

Re: Fire-flies: Mystery resolved

Okay, Patrick -- now you've stirred some of my own glowing memories! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Once or twice a year for many years I used to make my way down to Santa Barbara, California where I would meet up with a group of 20 or 30 other scuba divers and jump on a large dive boat for 3 days of non-stop diving around the Channel Islands, about 20 miles off the coast.

Two of my most pleasant memories from those trips involved spectacular displays of ocean-going bioluminescent micro-critters. The first time was at the end of a trip when we were heading back to port, all sunburned and blissfully exhausted, gathered on the upper deck, looking hypnotically at our wake in the lights from the boat. All of a sudden, the captain turned off all the lights and we were absolutely stunned to see the wake still shining brightly on its own. You'd have to see it to believe it. The "ooh's" and "ahh's" from the gallery were no less than you would hear at a 4th of July fireworks show.

The next time I encountered the stuff was on a night dive in about 60 feet of water next to one of the islands. It was the first and only time that most of us turned off our dive lights and just followed the Tinkerbelle effect of the diver's fins in front of us. Pitch darkness all around, in the eerie depths of the sea, broken only by this magical fairy-dust display of light as we moved. A more surrealistic feeling I have never experienced. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[patrickg]

Re: Fire-flies: Mystery resolved

Ja, Harv, been there seen that. Glowing wakes have been investigated by navy to track submarines as well as surface ships using overhead and other assets. Don't know if it has been used but I suppose night vision devices could exploit fireflys for illumination of surveilance targets.

A while back on one of those nature shows I saw a lizard, part of which glowed in the dark. Bugs being attracted to light would be invited to "the last supper" so to speak.

Last night's firefly population was way down. Hope this is a temporary set back and does not herald the end of the season (whatever that is).

Patrick

 

[scruffy]

Re: Fire-flies: Mystery resolved

Nicest collection of fire-flies here in So. Western Illinois. Sure enjoy setting out in the back yard at dusk watching them. Our Schnauzer sure gets enthralled with them, and when one lit up right at the end of his nose, my spouse and I darn near fell out of our chairs laughing at the expression on his face and the ferocious growl he let out!
OregonTom, I used to catch them by the jarful in SW Oregon when I was growing up. We found them under the huckleberry bushes, etc.

 

[RPM]

Re: Fire-flies: Mystery resolved

Re: Tracking by surface wake

I believe that the French developed a means to track submarines by satellite using this method. They didn't need bioluminescence though - did it by very careful analysis of the waves on the ocean surface from satellite pics. There was a big stink when it emerged that the Brits and the US (probably the NSA) had managed to purloin the relevant technique. Nothing like a little friendly intelligence work - the French never did join NATO after all.