Good luck to Sussex County’s own mysterious lantern firefly
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I don’t know much about the Bethany Beach firefly, but I know it’s a local beetle fighting extinction due to habitat loss and climate change. It’s on my radar because every couple of years, the plight of this specific firefly is used in news articles as an example of overdevelopment at the area’s beaches.
What I didn’t know is the Bethany Beach firefly isn’t the only Delaware firefly facing extinction. There’s also the mysterious lantern firefly, which is almost exclusively found in the floodplain habitats of the Nanticoke River on the western side of Sussex County and eastern Maryland. There have also been sightings in the Broadkill River watershed, but those have been limited.
I learned of this species through an announcement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that it had begun a 90-day review period related to a petition to include the mysterious lantern firefly on the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants. The announcement was published Jan. 26, and the new-to-me firefly was one of 10 animals listed as being reviewed.
According to the notice, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is the organization that submitted the petition on behalf of the firefly. The society is a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Ore., and has been around for 50 years. It specializes in the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. The society has submitted a similar petition before on behalf of the Bethany Beach firefly.
“Fireflies are charismatic animals that have long inspired the human psyche,” reads the petition, which is signed by society members Emily Geest, Sharon Selvaggio and Candace Fallon. “Sea-level rise and increased storm surges along the Atlantic Coast are a threat to this species, as is widespread pesticide use and the spread of invasive plants throughout its habitat. Despite dedicated search efforts, this firefly has been found in only a few sites. Furthermore, existing regulatory mechanisms are inadequate to protect this species from extinction.”
The petition is thorough in its description of the mysterious lantern firefly: its flash pattern consists of a medium-luminosity single flash, generally appearing more green than yellow; it has a prolonged flash, 0.4 to 0.8 seconds, occasionally longer than 1 second, which is how mysterious lantern fireflies received their name; females have been known to give multiple weak flashes when signaling to males, and males give trembling flashes when quickly approaching females; it’s only found in high-quality forested peatland floodplains, where Atlantic white cedar is often co-dominant.
At the conclusion of the review, the FWS will decide if the details in the petition warrant further action. If yes, a full status review is triggered, which takes 12 months.
For the same reason I regularly use this space to warn drivers about turtles on the local roads, I say good luck to the mysterious lantern firefly.
Get out and enjoy the ice
Once a winter, maybe once every other winter, it actually gets cold enough for things to freeze for real and then stay that way for an extended period of time. We recently experienced one of those freezes.
The week-long cold spell was bitter, but I do like seeing all the photos of the frozen chunks of ice floating through the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal and in Delaware Bay. It reminds me of another deep freeze we experienced a decade ago that produced one of my favorite early-family memories.
My son would have recently turned 2 and my daughter was only a few months old. Huge chunks of ice floating down the Delaware River were washing up on the beach in Cape Henlopen State Park. My wife hadn’t done much other than be a new mom because it was cold. For the record, I’m not downplaying the importance and work associated with being a new mom, I just don’t have the space to express my appreciation. Anyway, my wife wanted to get out of the house to see the ice, so we bundled everyone up and went down to the Point. My son was holding our hands and my daughter was strapped to the front of my chest in a carrier. The ice chunks were huge and the sand was covered in snow. There were definitely a few moments where my wife and I looked like we were fighting to keep our balance – the swimming arms, but getting nothing but air. It probably wasn’t the brightest idea to go down there with two young kids, but I still remember it.
Joke of the Week
Speaking of the cold, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on Groundhog Day earlier this week, which means six more weeks of winter is headed our way. If that’s the case, all you can do is laugh (or cry when paying the heating bill). As always, send jokes to cflood@capegazette.com.
Q: What do French groundhogs see on Feb. 2?
A: Their chateau.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
