Bioluminescence
Jul. 7th, 2007 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pallas_athenaVia the wonders of wifi, I am blogging to you live from my parents' back yard, where I'm watching the fireflies come out.
This is one of the best things about being in DC at this time of year. Usually I'm here in August or September, which is a bit too late for fireflies, but right now it's high season for them, and the yard is full of tiny living flashing stars.
There are several species of firefly; most of the ones we have here are the kind that come out at twilight and flash greenish-yellow for about a second while flying in a sort of J-shape. That's only the males: females of this species don't fly. They sit in the grass and wait, answering the males' flashes with their own. Sometimes, later at night, you can see the whiter lights of another species that sit in the trees and flash more rapidly.
The existence of fireflies boggles my mind. Glowing insects: how did that happen? When the glowing mutation occurred, why did other insects find it attractive? Flashing must take so much energy; it hardly seems practical in terms of survival. I guess I'm suspicious of it because I find it so beautiful. In the wild, nothing exists for beauty alone.
Of course, fireflies don't flash for beauty, or to entertain sentimental humans; they do it for sex. They don't live very long at all, and they use all their light to find a mate before they die. We humans don't have to do this, having all the years from puberty to menopause to get our business done. (Also, would a glowing human be attractive as a mate? Well, would they? Note: Cybergoths are prohibited from answering this question.)
Going back inside before I become an all-you-can-eat mosquito buffet.
This is one of the best things about being in DC at this time of year. Usually I'm here in August or September, which is a bit too late for fireflies, but right now it's high season for them, and the yard is full of tiny living flashing stars.
There are several species of firefly; most of the ones we have here are the kind that come out at twilight and flash greenish-yellow for about a second while flying in a sort of J-shape. That's only the males: females of this species don't fly. They sit in the grass and wait, answering the males' flashes with their own. Sometimes, later at night, you can see the whiter lights of another species that sit in the trees and flash more rapidly.
The existence of fireflies boggles my mind. Glowing insects: how did that happen? When the glowing mutation occurred, why did other insects find it attractive? Flashing must take so much energy; it hardly seems practical in terms of survival. I guess I'm suspicious of it because I find it so beautiful. In the wild, nothing exists for beauty alone.
Of course, fireflies don't flash for beauty, or to entertain sentimental humans; they do it for sex. They don't live very long at all, and they use all their light to find a mate before they die. We humans don't have to do this, having all the years from puberty to menopause to get our business done. (Also, would a glowing human be attractive as a mate? Well, would they? Note: Cybergoths are prohibited from answering this question.)
Going back inside before I become an all-you-can-eat mosquito buffet.