Week Twenty-Seven | The Flicker of Fireflies
Glowing, glowing… gone. Fireflies are bioindicators and the lights are going out.
Ecological disruption is changing the flicker patterns of fireflies so I am looking into ways in which light pollution in my immediate area is affecting Fireflies or Glow Worms, as they’re more commonly known in the UK. My work in 2022 was centred around Glow Worms as a discussion around mythology and the night. https://www.bethanykohrt.com/2022-glow I had wanted to develop the phosphorescence and do a night show of the works but it didn’t happen. I spoke to Velarde about it briefly but it didn’t go ahead. I would love to revisit this idea.
I am now interested in insects more generally in my current explorations of the compost pile and I couldn’t help but revisit the idea of Glow Worms and further investigate how they have been affected by light pollution and other climatic shifts due to human domination of the Natural World.
Not Glow Worms but my Nightswimming series were inspired heavily by James McNeill Whistler’s ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold, The Rocket’ from 1875
These were some early explorations earlier in the MA around using phosphorescent paint and a black light but I wasn’t really sure what they were about at that point. I was exploring astral networks and a sort of post-human landscape but I lost momentum, as they didn’t feel authentic. I now see moving back to the idea of Glow Worms as they are is more relevant and fits nicely with my compost ideas.
The following extract is copied from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10858911/
‘Embracing firefly flash pattern variability with data-driven species classification’
Many nocturnally active fireflies use precisely timed bioluminescent patterns to identify mates, making them especially vulnerable to light pollution. As urbanization continues to brighten the night sky, firefly populations are under constant stress, and close to half of the species are now threatened. Ensuring the survival of firefly biodiversity depends on a large-scale conservation effort to monitor and protect thousands of populations. While species can be identified by their flash patterns, current methods require expert measurement and manual classification and are infeasible given the number and geographic distribution of fireflies.
Nocturnal fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) have evolved a visually impressive light-based communication system under simultaneous evolutionary pressures to advertise their species, accentuate their sexual fitness, and avoid predation. Using a luciferin-luciferase reaction within their abdomen, fireflies broadcast their species identity via light pulses. In many North American genera both sexes flash and must also encode biological sex in their signals Sympatric species, or those that share the same geographic area, must also produce distinguishable patterns to effectively communicate species identity.
This unique signaling system makes fireflies particularly susceptible to human-created population threats like light pollution. Artificial light at night (ALAN) interferes with fireflies’ perception of conspecific signals and disrupts their communication timings, curtailing flash signaling behavior and preventing successful mating. In addition to light pollution, habitat degradation, pesticide use, water pollution, and climate change comprise some of the most serious environmental stressors causing declines in firefly populations across the globe
The video below is on the subject of ‘The Apocalypse of Insects’
From the above video, this is a screen shot of the development of light pollution across the US as captured by satellites. The video discusses factors around how this appears to be a significant underestimation of just rapidly light pollution has increasedy.
It may be worth visiting the Natural History Museum https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-glimmering-world-of-glow-worms.html
This would be of interest and is local - Glow Worms in Wiltshire there is a walk at Figsbury Ring near Salisbury
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wiltshire/figsbury-ring/glow-worm-walk
Also think about Moths, Nightbutterflies
Revisit Peter Randall-Page moth print that I bought.
Other references: