Lights out? Experts fear fireflies are dwindling

By MICHAEL CASEY, AP Environmental Writer
Sat Aug 30, 12:09 PM ET
BAN LOMTUAN, Thailand - Preecha Jiabyu used to take tourists on a rowboat to see the banks of the Mae Klong River aglow with thousands of fireflies.


These days, all he sees are the fluorescent lights of hotels, restaurants and highway overpasses. He says he'd have to row a good two miles to see trees lit up with the magical creatures of his younger days.

"The firefly populations have dropped 70 percent, in the past three years," said Preecha, 58, a former teacher who started providing dozens of row boats to compete with polluting motor boats. "It's sad. They were a symbol of our city."

The fate of the insects drew more than 100 entomologists and biologists to Thailand's northern city of Chiang Mai last week for an international symposium on the "Diversity and Conservation of Fireflies."

They then traveled Friday to Ban Lomtuan, an hour outside of Bangkok, to see the synchronous firefly Pteroptyx malaccae — known for its rapid, pulsating flashing that look like Christmas lights.

Yet another much-loved species imperiled by humankind? The evidence is entirely anecdotal, but there are anecdotes galore.

From backyards in Tennessee to riverbanks in Southeast Asia, researchers said they have seen fireflies — also called glowworms or lightning bugs — dwindling in number.

more:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080830/ap_on_re_as/fading_fireflies_1

This is a sure sign that things are going poorly in the environment. I will bet, that when the research is done, it's due to all the pesticide use.

Almost certainly the synergistic effect of habitat loss and pesticides.

I wonder how long it will take the Earth's enviroment to re-equilibrate in a configuration conducive to the rise of, for want of a better word, contemplative intelligence?

We know from the fossil record that the locking away of all that carbon the first time took millions or tens of millions of years of photosyntehtic energies and poisonous (to humans, anyway) Canfield and Anoxic Oceans.

What exactly will be the end result of what we are setting in motion here, before re-equilibration?

How long will re-equilibration take in the absence of sentient intelligence?

No one can know, but future alien anthropologists and Xeno-climatologists should get to observe the stages of ecological recovery up close in real time.

Good luck to them!

a noticeable abundance of them this year. :shrug:

Find out what they eat then put some down at regular intervals
along your path and, hey presto, low-cost garden lighting!

Cheap *and* green!

:think:

:rofl: