{"id":9921,"date":"2021-07-22T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/?p=9921"},"modified":"2021-09-07T02:30:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T02:30:26","slug":"sparks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/sparks\/","title":{"rendered":"SPARKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Walking through the park at dusk the other night, I saw a single spark. Then another. Soon there were too many to count, hovering in the airspace between my chin and my ankles, lighting my way past the lake, the band stand, and the Park House.<\/h4>\n

Who needs a time machine when you have memory to transport you to another place, another you? Those sparks must have kindled a few synapses, because suddenly I\u2019m six-years-old again, running with my best friend Cindi through freshly cut grass that envelopes us in the signature scent of a suburban summer while staining the soles of our feet DayGlo green. Wild with excitement at being allowed to stay outside after dark, we\u2019re relentless, ruthless, giggling predators intent on imprisoning lightning bugs in an empty Miracle Whip\u00ae jar.<\/h4>\n

If you live in the eastern half of the U.S., tell your neighbor or coworker you watched fireflies last night and see what happens. I\u2019ll bet you, dollars to donuts, their faces will soften and glow as if bathed in the bioluminescence of an impromptu nightlight. It\u2019s Proust\u2019s Remembrance of Things Past<\/em> all over again, but with Coleoptera instead of cookies.<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s right, they\u2019re not flies and not technically bugs either. They\u2019re beetles, a group that doesn\u2019t usually garner much affection from the human race. Let\u2019s face it\u2014we like our non-human animals to have fur or feathers and large, liquid, simple<\/em> eyes. If you can make your butt blink on warm summer evenings, however, folks are willing to see you in a new light.<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Special organs in the abdomen convert oxygen and a compound called luciferin<\/em> into a yellow or chartreuse glow. They\u2019re quite good at this, by the way. Common incandescent light bulbs convert only 10% of an energy supply into light; the other 90% is emitted as heat. Fluorescent bulbs transform 90% of the energy into light but fall short of the nearly 100% efficiency of a firefly\u2019s \u201ccold\u201d light.<\/h4>\n

As kids, we learn that fireflies flash to find a mate. What you may not know is that each species\u2014and there are many different species in North America alone\u2014has it\u2019s own unique light show. This helps everyone pair up correctly. Males fly around broadcasting a kind of visual Morse code to the females hanging out in or near the grass. When a female spots a familiar pattern she flashes a response, then they signal back and forth until the male finds her.<\/h4>\n

Some flash patterns warn away predators who\u2019ve come to associate an unpleasant meal with a specific blink beat. This doesn\u2019t work with every predator, juvenile Homo sapiens<\/em> being one obvious example.\u00a0 Often, though, the biggest threat comes from a relative\u2014some species are able to mimic the unique display pattern of their kin to trick the males and\u2026 well, use your imagination. Or, better yet, let Isabella Rossellini<\/a> explain it to you.<\/h4>\n

Returning from a reverie of 1965 to present day, I had a vague sense of something missing. Then it hit me\u2014I didn\u2019t see a single child with a jar in pursuit of bobbing, weaving cold-light moonbeams!<\/h4>\n

I found this disturbing.<\/h4>\n

Disheartening.<\/h4>\n

I have a sinking feeling that an overwhelming number of them are focused on the blue light of a smartphone screen, and not the real world in which they actually live.<\/h4>\n

My own lifelong fascination with the natural world wasn\u2019t sparked by National Geographic Specials<\/em> about exotic creatures living halfway around the world (although, in time, those programs came to have an impact as well). There\u2019s no doubt in my mind that my love of all things wild started as a toddler, sitting in my mom\u2019s lap in the backyard, watching cardinals grow bold with curiosity as she whistled their calls \u2014 Birdy-birdy-birdy! Cheer-cheer-cheer! <\/em>\u2014 back to them. It blossomed because, as a grade-schooler, I was allowed to raise tadpoles in galvanized buckets, catch crawdads in plastic cups, tie thread-leashes to the legs of June bugs, and run after lightning bugs with mayonnaise jars.<\/h4>\n

Maybe, if I\u2019d been walking through a subdivision, I\u2019d have seen evidence the same spark that caught fire in me all those years ago still has a chance to ignite wonder in the up-and-coming generation. Maybe there are thousands of children darting across thousands of lawns after millions of flashing yellow lights all across the U.S.<\/h4>\n

I hope so.<\/h4>\n

But can we really afford to leave it to chance?<\/h4>\n

I don\u2019t think so.<\/h4>\n

So would you do a favor for me, and our planet?<\/h4>\n

Find a kid you know.<\/h4>\n

Pull an empty jar down from a cabinet shelf and poke some holes in the lid.<\/h4>\n

Then go outside after dinner tonight, catch some fireflies, and light a spark.<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
\n

\u00a9 2011 Next-Door Nature\u2014 no reprints without written permission from the author. Thanks to the following photographers for making their work available for use through Creative Commons License: James Miles<\/a><\/span>, Jessica Lucia<\/span><\/a>, and Art Farmer.<\/em><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Walking through the park at dusk the other night, I saw a single spark. Then another. Soon there were too many to count, hovering in the airspace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we\u2019re twenty years into the Information Age so I\u2019m pretty sure everyone in this courtroom knows that, to quote a famous New Yorker <\/em>cartoon, \u201cOn the Internet, nobody knows you\u2019re a dog.\u201d The anonymity baked into the the interwebs means we\u2019re all free to be whatever, or whomever, we want to virtually be\u2026 even if we want to be someone else.<\/h4>\n

Identity theft may seem like a new and viral meme, but I assure you, creating a counterfeit profile is a prehistoric trope. It\u2019s older than Dick Whitman snagging Don Draper\u2019s dog tag in Mad Men (2007).  Older than Mrs. Doubtfire\u2019s dad-turned-nanny (1993). Older than the King of Ruritania\u2019s body-double in The Prisoner of Zenda (1894). Older, even, than the sibling-switch of Esau and Jacob in the Book of Genesis (6th century BC).<\/h4>\n

No, we need to travel even further back in time\u2014way, way back\u2014to the Pennsylvanian epoch over 300 million years ago, and what must surely be the first, the most diabolically devious, the most indelible stolen guise in the entire history of Planet Earth.<\/h4>\n

I intend to demonstrate, beyond any doubt (reasonable or otherwise), that the defendant\u2014Armadillidium vulgare<\/em>, aka \u201cpillbug\u201d\u2014is an imposter!<\/h4>\n
\"\"You already know he\u2019s a shape-shifter. Thanks to a body composed of overlapping plates he\u2019s a skilled conglobator\u2014transforming at a moment\u2019s notice from a scurrying, nearly two-dimensional, thumbnail-sized oval into an almost perfectly symmetrical 3D sphere. This is no parlor game, folks.  Crumpling to the size of a baby aspirin is a prescription for prevention of detection by those who would expose his true nature. (It also limits dehydration, but I digress).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Don\u2019t be fooled by this roly-poly fellow\u2019s non-threatening demeanor and diminutive stature. His rap sheet is a phone directory\u2019s worth of aliases: pillbug, wood bug, pea bug, potato bug, and doodlebug, to name only a few\u2026 but he is NOT a bug.<\/div>\n

That\u2019s right, this armored charlatan may claim to be kin to bedbugs, ladybugs, mealybugs, spittle bugs, stinkbugs, and other insects whose identities he has appropriated, but take a closer look and even without a DNA analysis the evidence is indisputable.<\/h4>\n

Exhibit #1:<\/strong>  Insects have a single pair of antennae. If the defendant would untuck enough to show his face to members of the jury, you would see that he has not one, but TWO pair of antennae.<\/h4>\n

Exhibit #2:<\/strong>  Insects have 3 pairs of jointed legs, clustered on the thorax. The defendant has 7 pairs of jointed legs\u2014one pair for each of the 7 segments that constitute his torso. But don\u2019t take my word for it\u2014count them yourselves.<\/h4>\n

\"\"Exhibit #3:<\/strong> As adults, insects breathe using a system of apertures and tubes called spiracles and tracheae, respectively. The defendant\u2014who, while not aquatic is clearly in some legal hot water here\u2014breathes using gill-like structures.<\/h4>\n

Exhibit #4: <\/strong> True bugs have piercing and sucking mouth-parts that place them in an insect league of their own. The defendant has no such anatomical features.  Just look\u2014he\u2019s not even able to use a straw!<\/h4>\n

Exhibit  #5:<\/strong>  Speaking of drinking\u2026 insect have a waxy, water-resistant epicuticle that deters desiccation. The defendant does not, which leads me to wonder if his repeated requests for a glass of water are due to the dry air in this courtroom, or a case of nerves born of a guilty conscience?<\/h4>\n

Exhibit #6:<\/strong> No courtroom drama would be complete without a reference to sex so let\u2019s talk about reproduction. Insects employ a diverse set of parenting strategies, including: oviparity<\/em> (eggs are deposited and develop outside the female\u2019s body); ovoviparity<\/em> (eggs develop inside the female\u2019s body and hatch immediately after being laid); and even viviparity<\/em> (young gestate inside the female and are born, not hatched). But the one strategy insects do NOT use is the marsupium<\/em>. That\u2019s right, a pouch tucked under the thorax in which newly hatched young develop until they are old enough to venture out into the world on their own\u2026 a pouch just like the one you would find on the defendant\u2019s own mother!<\/h4>\n

Members of the jury, the facts speak for themselves. The phony before you is not a bug. He has far more in common with a shrimp, a crab, or a lobster than any insect. Literally. Because this common pillbug is, in reality\u2026<\/h4>\n

\u2026a terrestrial CRUSTACEAN!!<\/em><\/h4>\n

[Audible gasps from the courtroom audience]<\/em><\/h4>\n

Your Honor, the prosecution rests.<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n\n
\n\n

\u00a9 2010 <\/em>Next-Door Nature. Thanks to the photographers who granted permission to use their photos, and to those who made their work available through the Creative Commons license: Alan Howell<\/a><\/span>, Andy Purviance<\/a><\/span>, Brian Gratwicke<\/a><\/span>, and Dany Sternfeld<\/a><\/span>.<\/em><\/h4>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":0,"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[428,16],"tags":[59,18,493,27,494,495,41,43,294,9,496,12,224,291,14],"class_list":["post-9921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-invertebrates","category-wildlife","tag-animal-behavior","tag-backyard-wildlife","tag-beetles","tag-breeding-behavior","tag-fireflies","tag-firefly","tag-hidden-nature","tag-hidden-wildlife","tag-invertebrates","tag-lafayette-park","tag-lightning-bugs","tag-nature","tag-st-louis","tag-surburan-wildlife","tag-urban-wildlife"],"yoast_head":"\nSPARKS - Lafayette Park Conservancy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/sparks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SPARKS - Lafayette Park Conservancy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Walking through the park at dusk the other night, I saw a single spark. 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