If you live in western NC, you’ve probably heard of a firefly called a blue ghost. If you live elsewhere, and have never heard of this firefly, let me introduce you.
Blue ghost fireflies live only in the eastern United States, along the Appalachian Mountains. Unlike other fireflies that have blinking patterns to attract mates, blue ghost males have tiny lights on their abdomen that stay on for up to one minute as he cruises just a few feet above the forest floor, looking for females. What a surprise, right? Females don’t have wings and so, cannot fly. They wait in the leaf litter, shining their lights in response to the males. Interestingly, females have between 4-7 tiny lights on their abdomens. (Here you can see what a female looks like!) If you’re lucky enough to be in a dark forest watching this happen, what you see are hundreds, if not thousands, of light trails moving silently through the darkness. It’s magical! And it will make you shake your head in wonder at the gifts Mother Nature is constantly presenting us with. Thank you Mother Nature!!
Here are a few things you may not know about this fireflies:
- Blue ghost fireflies are only the size of a grain of rice!! They are indeed tiny.
- Blue ghost female fireflies guard their eggs, from 20-30 tiny eggs, until their deaths. Females curl their abdomens to protectively gather her eggs and despite her tiny size, she will defend them from predators. After her death the eggs are on their own, and many are eaten before they can develop into adult fireflies.
- Blue ghost fireflies–like other fireflies– require darkness and moist leaf litter. Darkness is essential to allow males to find females. Imagine if the ground was covered with patches of artificial light–how can that tiny male find that tiny female? She essentially disappears and he is left forever looking. Leaf litter is also essential because in their larval stage, fireflies live in the leaf litter. Without it, they cannot survive.
- Blue ghost firefly larvae– like other species of fireflies–are voracious predators, able to eat prey much larger than themselves. Favorites include worms, snails and slugs.
- As adults, blue ghost fireflies, like most other fireflies, do not feed. Their main goal as adults is to mate and reproduce.
If you want to witness this magical event, I’m leading blue ghost firefly tours in May. Here’s how you can reserve your spot. I hope to see you there!
Re the last photo captioned ‘This is a female blue ghost. She has no wings.’: I am surprised she is a larva, or at least that is how she appears to me. How can a larva lay eggs? How does she have the speed of movement to defend her eggs? Wouldn’t the female only be capable of reproduction if she were an adult? She doesn’t look anything like an adult.
I would love to see the mating display of the blue ghosts, but I am much too far away. Thanks.
Murray, the female blue ghost is what’s called paedomorphic. This means they remain in larval form through adulthood but are sexually mature and can mate and reproduce. As for speed of movement– I doubt she can move very fast and obviously most things are bigger than her so will just eat her to get to the eggs. But she will curl her abdomen around her small clutch of eggs to protect them until her death.