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If you’ve been walking through Prospect Park or pausing under the trees in Fort Greene lately and thought the city was suddenly feeling... enchanted, you’re not alone. New Yorkers across all five boroughs are reporting a serious uptick in the number of fireflies (a.k.a. lightning bugs) lighting up our humid summer nights and, yes, it’s very real.
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The dazzling comeback is courtesy of an unusually rainy spring. According to entomologists, the near-constant showers created ideal soggy conditions for firefly larvae, who thrive in moist soil rich with snails, slugs and other tasty morsels. “They do really well when there’s a lot of rainfall,” Dr. Jessica Ware, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History, told the New York Post. “That extra moisture, that is really good for the juvenile [fireflies]—the juveniles develop into adults, and those are the adults that are moving around and flashing.”
And New York had plenty of rain to go around—May alone saw precipitation on 18 days. That’s helped fuel a flashier-than-usual firefly season, even if, technically, firefly populations are still on the decline overall. “It’s not necessarily that we’re seeing more,” Ware clarified to the paper. “It’s that we’re not seeing as few.”
Still, the visual payoff has been massive. Walks at dusk have turned into accidental light shows from the Big Dipper firefly (a.k.a. Photinus pyralis), whose signature J-shaped flight pattern and soft glow have lit up social media and the city skyline alike. Reports of firefly sightings have poured in from Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Green-Wood Cemetery and even street corners in Bed-Stuy.
But don’t let the magic fool you: Urban fireflies face real threats, from pesticides to light pollution, which can throw off their carefully choreographed mating blinks. If you want to help, experts suggest planting native flora, keeping outdoor lighting to a minimum and resisting the urge to rake every single leaf (yes, really—larvae overwinter in leaf litter).
For now, though, it’s peak firefly mating season—a hormonally charged light show if there ever was one. So go ahead: Take the long way home through the park or sit on your stoop a little longer at sunset. The bugs are busy finding love, and you get a front-row seat to one of nature’s most luminous displays.