Tuesday, May 26, 2009

What Happened to Green Lightning Bugs?

I was sitting outside with the dogs yesterday as darkness fell and I saw tons of lightning bugs in the woods and all over the yard. They were all orange. When I was a kid there used to be green ones but I did not see one green one last night and haven't seen any green ones in a long time.

What happened to the green lightning bugs?


4 comments:

Brandon said...

all I ever see is green ones ... orange ones sound cool though but I've never even heard of that.

Vape_1:29 said...

Loretta,
- I have always been fascinated about
bioluminescence
and have looked through many online-articles
about the subject.

- Even though I'm aware that several different colors
can be produced via bioluminescence,
all I've ever seen are yellow-green / blue-green lightning-bugs,
- There are two explanations I've found
for the red variety...

- 1) Genetics:
A mutant variety which produces a lower-energy version of
luciferase

- 2) pH variations of
firefly luciferin,
though I'm not certain whether environmental pH or
firefly genetics is the primary factor for what you're seeing.
Spectral-Distribution of Firefly Light

- Firefly luciferase is a very efficient light-source
compared with regular incandescent light-bulbs...

- Perhaps bioluminescent livestock will be the new
green-lighting solution:

Bioluminescent pig-bits

green-glowing pigs

Green-tinged farm

Christie O'Brien said...

Global warming ?!

Anonymous said...

ive only seen one lighting bug in my life and it was green they are pretty cool