Tiny Blue Ghost fireflies make their annual appearancewww.blueridgenow.com/article/20070605/NEWS/70605004By Lindsay Lancaster
Times-News Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 4:14 p.m.
DUPONT STATE FOREST — Walk through the woods at night in Western North
Carolina and you may be able to see a floating phenomena that some say
resembles little elves carrying pale blue candles.
Hiking out a gravel roadway in the dark, your eyes adjust to let the moon light
your way through the woods. Turning onto a narrow dirt path, it’s more
difficult to see from the cover of pine trees serving as a canopy. It only takes
a few minutes after turning onto the path to begin seeing faint blue lights
appearing on either side of the trail.
For Phausis reticulata, or the Blue Ghost Firefly, it’s mating season,
the only time of year you can observe their pale blue glow in masses as
they float around at knee-height above the forest floor. But the Blue Ghosts
are different from your average firefly.
“When you see them, they’re hard to describe. They’re not flashing fireflies,
they just glow,” says Dr. Jennifer Frick-Ruppert, associate professor of
ecology and environmental studies and executive director of the Appalachian
Center for Environmental Education at Brevard College. “They are a dim,
glowing bunch of lights moving across the forest floor.”
Blue Ghost fireflies glow for an undetermined amount of time, she says.
Unlike their better-known cousins that flash in patterns, Blue Ghosts glow
continuously. And there are lots of them.
“When they’re out, they’re out in profusion,” Frick-Ruppert says.
Where to see Blue Ghost
Blue Ghost Fireflies are mysterious because most people have never seen
any and don’t even know they exist. Yet, once you’re aware of them,
these winged ghosts are fairly easy to spot.
“They’re quite widespread,” Frick-Ruppert says, explaining that the center
of their distribution is in the Southern Appalachians, ranging from eastern
North Carolina to northern Florida and into Virginia. But the hotbed for
the insects seems to be in Transylvania County.
(But of course!)They require high humidity, making the moist leaves on the abundant
forest floor the perfect habitat.
“They’re only found in very undisturbed areas,” says Josh Rosen, a recent
Brevard College graduate who worked closely with Frick-Ruppert on his senior
project studying the insects. “They need a lot of moisture and a lot of tree cover.”
But you don’t have to go to Balsam Grove or DuPont Forest or anywhere
in particular to observe these neat critters. If you go out in your own back yard
in a wooded area, you’re likely to find them.
About the size of a grain of rice, they are smaller than the fireflies you typically
see out in fields at night time. The Blue Ghost Fire Flies you’ll see are the males.
The females don’t have wings.
The females also glow, but they are grub-like in appearance.
Since they don’t have wings, they are restricted to the leaf litter on the forest
floor, making them difficult to spot.
The Blue Ghost adults are only out for one month each year. In cold weather,
the larvae form of the Blue Ghost is inactive, but in warmer months, the
larvae crawl around in the leaf litter, eating worms and insects.
“They’re like tiny sharks, cruising around the leaf litter,” Frick-Ruppert says.
During the daytime, the adult males burrow down beneath the leaves.
The Blue Ghost spends most of its life in the larvae form, and after mating
and laying eggs as an adult, the cycle ends and the firefly dies.
Unanswered questions
Frick-Ruppert and Rosen have been studying the insects for about a year,
thanks to the Friends of DuPont Forest, who gave Brevard College a
grant to study the creatures.
“I always was interested in fireflies, but this (project) got me really interested,”
Rosen says. He did not know about this particular species until he started
working with Frick-Ruppert last May. The mystery of the creatures is captivating.
“There’s so much that’s not known about them yet.”
Before they began working together, Frick-Ruppert only knew of a few places
where these insects had been reported: Balsam Grove, DuPont State Forest,
Cleveland, S.C., and Mount Pisgah. And only one scientific paper had been
published on them.
Now Frick-Ruppert and Rosen are writing the first scientific paper solely about
this species of intriguing insects and they hope to submit it to a scientific journal
sometime this summer.
Although they have done a great deal of research, Frick-Ruppert hopes to
answer several remaining questions as she continues to study the glowing insects.
“I don’t know what controls their patterns,” Frick-Ruppert says.
The females glow, but researchers are still unsure what causes them to glow.
They also want to find out how the Blue Ghost Fireflies control the intensity
of their glow.
“They have more than one light segment, and could be turning on only one
segment at a time,” Frick-Ruppert says.
She has a few concerns about the future of the Blue Ghost.
At the end of May, the U.S. Drought Monitor of North Carolina reported that
several Western North Carolina counties, including Transylvania and Henderson,
were experiencing a severe drought.
“I’m worried that it’s (the drought) going to affect the Blue Ghost,”
Frick-Ruppert says.
Not to mention, with the current development boom in Transylvania
and Henderson counties replacing natural areas, habitats for the Blue Ghost
Firefly and other critters could be affected.
Once the fireflies are eliminated from an area due to clearing or severe droughts,
it’s very difficult for them to get back, especially since the females don’t fly,
Frick-Ruppert says.
“They require an intact forest,” she says. “As we over-develop, we’re going to
lose these fireflies that are special to us. It’s up to us to try to preserve
these areas.”
)
nonetheless. Until all the executives at Monsanto are hung, 
