In late spring, a handful of male adult fireflies begin flashing their lanterns in a way that’s specifically designed to identify potential mates. Then, once they reach maturity, it’s showtime. For the first one to two years, they crawl around the forest floor in search of bugs, worms and snails to eat. However, the nonprofit Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina will make tickets to its firefly show available starting May 23.Īlso known as lightning bugs, these small insects are actually beetles that spend the majority of their short lives as larvae, according to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Park officials plan to award 800 total vehicle passes for the firefly show, with only 100 vehicles permitted to enter the viewing area each evening, according to the lottery website.Įlsewhere, Congaree National Park’s lottery for viewing the synchronic fireflies in South Carolina is already closed. Interested parties then have until Monday, May 1, to submit their application for a vehicle pass, and the park will notify applicants of whether they’ll be able to attend or not by May 11. The park’s synchronous firefly lottery is scheduled to open on Friday. Soon, travelers will be able to apply to watch the glowing Photinus carolinus inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the border between Tennessee and North Carolina, from June 4 through June 11. Watching this beautiful phenomenon has become so popular in South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee that public land managers have resorted to implementing lottery systems to help manage crowds. While the fireflies are normally seen on Elkmont, which is at 2,200 feet, Sorenson saw them at a much higher elevation - Grandfather Mountain is at 4,200 feet.In their quest for mates each spring, tens of thousands of synchronous fireflies flash their lanterns in unison, creating a magical natural spectacle for lucky onlookers to behold.
Where they have been most widely known and recognized for so long is at Elkmont in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park," Sorenson said. "The species goes all the way from New York to Georgia. Visitors carrying red flashlights walk the Little River Trail to observe synchronous fireflies in their annual mating ritual in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's Elkmont Campground outside Gatlinburg, Tenn. "There's only a handful of species all around the world that do this, and for a long time, this particular species, the phenomenon of seeing large numbers of them synchronizing has been associated tightly with just a couple geographical areas," Sorenson said in a press release.
Sorenson saw several hundred synchronous fireflies when he spent the night in the park's guest cottage. Clyde Sorenson, an entomologist from North Carolina State University, CBS affiliate WJHL reports. They were spotted on Grandfather Mountain, in western North Carolina, by Dr. The synchronous fireflies can synchronize their flashing light patterns with each other, according to the National Park Service. Some very special fireflies have been spotted in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park - and they look more like a choreographed light show, rather than a swarm of bugs.
0 kommentar(er)
