Fireworks and Fireflies in Our Indiana Backyards

Writer  /  Nancy Craig

A highlight of growing up on an Indiana farm in the summer was running across the fields catching lightning bugs. The fireflies swarmed over the long grasses of the pony lots around our farmhouse. They made the summer evening magical as we caught them and put them in a mason jar with holes punched into the lid.

So many Hoosiers have fond memories of fireflies that Indiana may soon declare it our state insect. Right now, there are bills in the Indiana Senate (SB 95) and House (HB 1243) to make the Say’s firefly, Pyractomena angulate, Indiana’s state insect. There are more than 40 species of fireflies in Indiana, and most of us are more familiar with the firefly, Photinus pyralis, or the big-dipper lightning bug. Their light pattern flashes like the shape of the big dipper star constellation.

Our backyard is the perfect place to watch lightning bugs. The fireflies like the trees, shrubs and longer grass along the tree line. My friend, Vicky Koch, who is a missionary in Rwanda, Africa, just loved seeing the lightning bugs when she and her husband, Mike, visited us a few summers ago. The Kochs are from the state of Washington where they did not have lightning bugs, and even though they have seen many unusual bugs and animals in Africa, she still asks about our Indiana fireflies.

My great nephews, Max and Eli, have enjoyed learning about the science behind (no pun intended) how the light in firefly happens. Google Tom Turpin, Professor at Purdue University Entomology Department, for his explanation of this chemical reaction called bioluminescence. The Firefly site, firefly.org, has all kinds of information on the lightning bugs. In fact, even though we call them lightning bugs and fireflies, they are not bugs or flies but beetles.firefly

The Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley wrote about the firefly in the poem he called “The Beetle,” now called “Dusk Song”:

“The toadstool bulges through the weeds,

And lavishly to left and right

The fireflies, like golden seeds,

Are sown about the night.”

Over the summer, my great nephews and nieces will help me relive the magic of my childhood lightning bug days, and then late in the fall, we will look for the glowing firefly larvae and remember the song, “Glow Little Glow-worm, Glow.” This July as we celebrate with fireworks, take the time to enjoy the quieter living light show of the fireflies.

The Gardening Nana

Note: To learn more about making the firefly our state insect and support Kayla and the students of the Cumberland Elementary School, visit facebook.com/firefly2016.

Comments 1

  1. What a wonderful article you wrote!!! Thank you so much of supporting Kayla, and my students from Room 23 at Cumberland Elementary School in West Lafayette, IN. The students from Room 23 have been working for almost two year trying to convince the IGA to establish the Say's Firefly (Pyractomena angulata) as Indiana's official state insect. Kayla and her classmates do not want Indiana to be the last state to acquire one. Michigan and Iowa are also without a state insect.

    As we continue on this quest for the firefly, Hoosiers everywhere ask us the following question. "Why DOESN'T Indiana have a state insect?" The President of the Benton County Commissioners said it best when the Commissioners passed a Resolution this past June making the Say's Firefly Benton County's insect. "I'd rather have the firefly be our insect than the mosquito!" After that, the vote was unanimous for the Say's Firefly. Kayla was so delighted that she had given such a persuasive presentation to the Benton County Commissioners. (Thanks again to Jeff Brooks, a teacher from Boswell, for getting the firefly on the Commissioners' agenda!)

    As the 2016-17 school year begins, we ask students from all over the state to please contact their own state legislators asking them to support making the Say's Firefly our official state insect! (They should call the Statehouse and leave a message, send a personal letter, or an e-mail.) After all, Indiana was established 200 years ago. Thomas Say, also known as the Father of American Entomology, named this firefly 190 years ago in southern Indiana near New Harmony. In addition, this particular firefly is indigenous to North America. My class learned that approximately 50% of the current state insects were brought over from Europe. Therefore, the Say's Firefly can claim its roots in Indiana making it a very impressive Hoosier insect!!

    Room 23 appreciates your wonderful story and your support for the Say's Firefly!!!

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