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While their famous cousins in Asia light up the environment with continuously synchronous flashes while perched on trees, the display of Photinus carolinus is a much more complex showing of patterns while in flight. More specifically, the team verified that the Allegheny hosted populations of Photinus carolinus, which is responsible for one of nature’s most incredible light shows.
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The follow up report, authored by noted naturalist Lynn Faust, confirmed that there were “abundant and widespread” synchronous firefly populations in the ANF. “Fortuitously, they chose to stay at the Black Caddis Ranch Bed and Breakfast whose three-bay garage became the site of an improvised entomology lab,” explains Parkhurst.
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The display of these fireflies was unusual, as it was a complex pattern of pulsed flashes that occurred over multiple intervals, similar to the famous synchronous fireflies found in the Smoky Mountains.Ī year later the Firefly International Research & Education (FIRE) team visited the ANF where they could conduct extensive field research. “Late one night in the summer of 2011, a group of campers in the Kellettville area of the Allegheny National Forest had let their campfire burn low when they noticed unusual flashing fireflies near their campsite,” says Bruce Parkhurst, who serves on the board of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Firefly Festival. However, one species is particularly special and was only confirmed in the Forest in 2012. Additionally five species found in the Forest are diurnal and do not glow at all. Then there’s the orange flicker of Pyractomena angulate as well as the recognizable Photinus pyralis, the most widespread of the eastern fireflies. Imagine tiny galaxies wafting in the night breeze. There’s the Photuris versicolor, or the Chinese lantern, which as its evocative name suggests, hypnotically “floats” near the Forest’s Tionesta Creek. More than 2,000 species of fireflies are thought to exist worldwide with 125 found in North America. While commonly thought of as a fly these beloved insects are actually a type of beetle. The deciduous woodlands and watersheds on the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) offer some of the best locations to experience the magical showing of bioluminescence that defines summer evenings in the Appalachians.įor many of us who grew up east of the Mississippi, no summer evening was complete without going out and catching “lightning bugs.” Their fanciful golden glow was mysterious, wonderful, and oh so beautiful. Northwest Pennsylvania holds a secret it is a firefly wonderland.