Fireflight of fancy

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It was so nice to sleep in until nine, and then have my breakfast of strawberries and bananas in yoghurt with a couple cups of coffee and orange juice this morning, and have no where to rush to.

The morning was spent lounging in the sun and catching up on blogging. Before going for a big walk we had a lunch of delicious salad my mother made for us. Next we set out on a tiny dirty road without any knowledge of where it might lead. The views were beautiful, and we saw many flowers and dogs along the way. Some of the dogs were friendly, but most seemed determined to impress us with their ability to defend their turf, even a fat little daschund. The path, it turned out, took us in a wide loop through the countryside and then back to town. The grown ups decided to have a drink at the coffee bar, which was full of shouting Italians playing cards. While mom and geoff went outside to drink their beer in relative peace, dad and I stayed to watch the television coverage of some sort of car race in montecarlo, which looked very familiar to me because of Iron Man II

The walk home from the town takes only 15 minutes or so, and I got myself this last leg of our 12km trek by reminding myself of the lemon coke and potato chips I would enjoy when I got home.

Dinner was delicious home made spaghetti carbonara, using wonderful cured pork Geoff bought from the local butcher, who in exciting local news, has a new pig in this week.

After dinner three bottles of wine mysteriously disappeared and there was much sharing of stories, which was very pleasant. Then it was out to look at the stars. I was distracted from the stars by sighting fireflies, which I have never seen at this proximity before. They were sparkling throughout the garden, and Geoff, Dad and I enjoyed watching them and wondering how they work. Fireflies are defined thusly: Lampyridae is a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged beetles, and commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous crepuscular use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. This chemically-produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale-red, with wavelengths from 510 to 670 nanometers. Fireflies hibernate over winter during the larval stage, some species for several years. Some do this by burrowing underground, while others find places on or under the bark of trees. They emerge in the spring. After several weeks of feeding, they pupate for 1.0 to 2.5 weeks and emerge as adults. The larvae of most species are specialized predators and feed on other larvae, terrestrial snails, and slugs. Light production in fireflies is due to a type of chemical reaction called bioluminescence. This process occurs in specialised light-emitting organs, usually on a firefly's lower abdomen. The enzyme luciferase acts on the luciferin, in the presence of magnesium ions, ATP, and oxygen to produce light. Genes coding for these substances have been inserted into many different organisms (see Luciferase – Applications). Firefly luciferase is used in forensics, and the enzyme has medical uses — in particular, for detecting the presence of ATP or magnesium. It has been speculated that Baroque painter Caravaggio may have prepared his canvases with a powder of dried fireflies to create a photosensitive surface on which he projected the image to be painted. Fireflies are a classic example of an organism that uses bioluminescence for sexual selection. They have a variety of ways to communicate with mates in courtships: steady glows, flashing, and the use of chemical signals unrelated to photic systems. The fireflies we watched tonight were of the flashing variety.

It turns out Geoff has the secret genius of catching fireflies. I took a video of two of these occurrences, with my camera light both on and off, to try to capture the flashing, which showed up but not well. The video is something like Aliens in that it's dark and voices are exclaiming, "they're everywhere!" but then not, as the voices then say, "it's tickling my arm hair". The video will be of interest to almost no one, but I have included it for the few that will be amused. If you're looking for a wonderful depiction of the glowing majesty of the firefly, this is not the video for you. Three Dunbars, at least two fireflies, hopelessly out of focus for the first seven seconds, and long periods where it's totally dark but you can hear inane gibberish:

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Comments

[Auntie Jeanie]

Familiar voices!
Isn't technology wonderful! My brothers and my niece admiring fireflies seven time zones away from me, and I can hear the whole conversation as though I were there. No wine, unfortunately.

[hamish]

In your travels Mary, have you eta beta pi?
The photos of the ruins are excellent and the country side looks like a good ride to me. I used to run out to the street to get ice cream from that little truck. It's probably all melted now...

[Peter Wright]

So I enjoyed reading your lovely description of fireflies, and then you sucked all the whimsy out of it with your scientific descriptions. My mock indignation knows no bounds!