On a muggy evening in late July, supervisor Miranda Adams led a small group of citizen scientists through the dense forest at the Ray Harral Nature Center to search for the glowing beetles.
It was the first-ever Glow Patrol. Adams said it’s the second location in the state to conduct a standardized firefly survey.
“I’m hoping that our volunteers tonight will feel inspired. They’ll be trained on how to conduct a firefly survey, so they could potentially do their own survey in a different location,” Adams said. “If I have even just five more people come out with me, that’s five more backyards. That’s five more camping trips. So, we went from five data sets to 25, 50.”
Participants counted, identified and documented the fireflies at the Certified Firefly Habitat. That data is sent to the Xerces Society’s Firefly Atlas. It’s a collaborative of researchers who collect reports on threatened and data-deficient firefly species throughout North America to inform conservation efforts.
When a specimen was spotted, a group member swooped it into a net, and Adams documented it.. She included the evening’s conditions, like the time it was caught, the wind and temperature.
“The common eastern firefly is the firefly that I was expecting to see, so that’s our target species,” Adams said to the group.
Adams said the event’s purpose was twofold: collect data and spark the fire for citizen scientists to continue the work on their own and recruit more to the cause.
“You don’t need to spend years in a university to be able to contribute real data to researchers. And in fact, it is much more efficient if we are able to crowdsource our researchers, get people collecting data in their backyard, in their local parks,” Adams said.
“We’re going to be able to cover a lot more terrain that way, so it’s really right there in the name — it’s you, the citizen, are the scientist, you’re contributing data to the larger firefly research.”
While the firefly species caught at the event isn’t endangered or threatened, Adams said it’s still important to give researchers a snapshot-in-time count so future numbers can be measured against it.
Scientists say some firefly populations show evidence of decline, and more data is needed to address the issue.
Adams said more economic development means more habitat loss, pesticide use and light pollution, so the potential for future decline is high.
“Nobody wants to imagine childhood without summer fireflies,” Adams said. “Like what a tragedy it would be to lose that.”
Korbin Johnson is a biology student at Tulsa Community College who hopes to work in conservation. He says when he was a kid, he would look out and see fields of fireflies.
“I would just kinda be staring at them, not really thinking about anything. I was kind of caught up in their beauty. And as the place developed, I just [started] seeing them less and less,” Johnson said. “So now, I have to go out to places where it’s kind of like, protected.”
For many firefly species, the flashes are part of a courtship ritual. Male fireflies hover above, signaling to females on the ground through a series of species-specific flash patterns.
“She’s going to sit on her front porch watching,” Adams said. “And if she sees a display that she likes, she might just turn on the porch light. Come on over!”
To identify the species in the air, Adams carries a guide with flash patterns. The male common eastern firefly produces a yellowish, J-shaped flash that lasts about a half-second, every six seconds.
Overall, the group estimates more than 100 fireflies were seen during the hour-long survey.
Adams says this year’s survey was encouraging, but the work isn’t done. In the off-season, humans can help firefly populations by leaving leaf piles alone for larval development and planting pollinator gardens.
Next summer, more citizen scientists can contribute to the body of knowledge about Oklahoma’s luminous lightning bugs.
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