Fireflies

  Every night before getting ready for bed I walk out to my yard to check the stars and to just feel the night.
  Tonight is the 4th of July and fireflies sparkle like a field of diamonds before me - specks of living light twinkling in the dark. In the distance I hear the rumble of a fireworks display and think, "What a waste of gunpowder and sky." The dazzling exhibition in my yard rivals any fireworks I've seen and I feel privileged to witness this spectacle in private.
  But this presentation isn't for my entertainment. There's a lot more going on here than many of us realize. This display is of lust and death.
  These remarkable green and yellow flashing lights have always had a hypnotic effect on me. As a child I was fascinated by fireflies and would capture them in jars to serve as a bedroom nightlight. But the same pulsing glow that attracts youngsters often leads male fireflies to their deaths.
  In warm-weather months, especially where open meadows and forests coexist, the adult male fireflies of most species set out on nuptial flights in the evening hours. The females, meanwhile, await their mates in the foliage, blinking seductively. The task for each male is to find an unmated female.
  It’s critical that the female be unmated because in many firefly species the females change through internal chemistry into man-eaters once they've successfully mated. Thereafter, they use their blinks to attract meals, not males. Some females even imitate the blinking patterns of other species in an effort to attract as many unsuspecting males as possible. Femme Fatales!
It’s a fly-eat-fly world out there.