It's firefly season! We have been seeing them for a month now and they never fail to make me smile.
 |
| Summer childhood ritual. |
They start glowing just as it starts to get dark outside. We see them in cornfields, ditches on the side of the highway, and patches of woods next to truck stops. Silent fireworks every night for free!
They aren't much to look at when they aren’t glowing their little hearts out. A small, plain beetle that would go unnoticed in the daylight, really puts on a show around dusk. And it's all about sex.
 |
| I'm glowing because I'm happy to see you. |
Hundreds of them gather in an area to flash and glow, trying to get some lightning bug action. The males flit around flashing their abdomens in a macho way, while the females gossip about who has the biggest flasher. When a female is suitably impressed by a lit up Lothario, she perches on a blade of grass and flashes back to him, in her best come hither manner. If she's not in the mood, she doesn't flash, so the males can't find her. It's always ladies night in the Lightning Bug Lounge.
 |
| If you listen closely, you can hear Barry White singing softly in the background. Learn more here. |
I hate to hit them as we're driving, since they make me so happy, but they do leave a pretty awesome streak of glowing goo on the windshield as they die.
*Side note*
All this glowing green reminds of the coolest thing I ever had as a child; the Green Machine. A thousand times better than that pansy, the Big Wheel, the Green Machine had stick-shift steering and racing slick rear tires that made me the envy of the neighborhood.
 |
| Don't hate the player, hate the game. |
Not just for guys who like to race really fast Marx Toy Company!!
