Stamp of the Day: Firefly

The fireflies are here! I love this creature, actually there are many species, and I love their lightning spiel in the dark evenings and nights of the summer. We have at least two species here in New Jersey, one that blink one long time often while flying upwards, and another that is mostly in trees and blinks three short signals. In a book I read recently, they described how they drive up to a meadow in a car, turn off the car lights and then turn them on quickly for a short second and in return all the fireflies blink back at them all at once. That must be amazing to see. In Sweden there are no fireflies, only 'lysmaskar' that only sit still, never fly, which is kind of boring but better than nothing. Maybe you'll get some flying ones with global warming...

The light of the fireflies is cold, since it has no UV rays in it, and is produced through a chemical reaction and the enzyme luciferase. Scientists have inserted the gene for this enzyme in mice and potatoes in the lab (easier to dig for the potatoes then?). In forensics they use this enzyme to see blood stains since the enzyme only reacts if it has a substrate like blood or other cells to react with. The Chinese used to capture them and had them caged in lanterns. And finally, the firefly is the state insect of Pennsylvania. It is good too - the larvae eats snails!