Synchronous Fireflies in the Smokies!

While on vacation, my family and I ventured out to the Smoky Mountains to watch the lightening bugs (of all things). Did you know that lightening bugs only mate in two places in the world - one of them is in the Elmont area in the Smoky Mountains, the other is in Southeast Asia. They only mate for 2 weeks in June. Anyway, none of us had ever heard about this until this year, so we went to see what all of the talk was about. Well, some of us didn't go - my niece wouldn't go (she said she wasn't going to watch lightening bugs "do it." It was quite interesting once the "show" finally started. Let me tell you, it is pitch black in the Smokies once the sun goes down. And then the male lightening bugs start lighting in synchrony, then it is pitch black again, then the females answer. The males were all together on the left and the females on the right. We might go again next year - but next year we will be more prepared for how cold it is in the mountains once the sun goes down, especially when it has rained almost every day for the entire spring. Check out this site for more info: www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/fireflies.htm.