Sam, the firefly.

Sam, the firefly.

Posted on 26 Jul, 2008 11 comments

The first time I ever heard of fire flies was when I read: Seuss’s Sam and the firefly to my children. I was facinated and so were the children. When I came to Darwin I finally had a close encounter with Sam.
The summer months there in the tropics bring out a lot of insects and many hatch during this time. We’ve had huge amount of flying white ants in the evenings too. But one night after the lights were out and we were trying to go to sleep I suddenly saw a couple of lights in the garden. I wondered if someone had trespassed on our property and was roaming around the garden. I was wide awake by now at that very idea. What if? The lights had meanwhile multiplied and seemed to have come closer. I got a little worried. Maybe I should get a torch myself and start shining back? Suddenly the lights seem to be inside our bedroom! No footsteps were to be heard. The dogs didn’t even whimper. What could it be? Then the light extinguished. It seemed to have gone as mysteriously as it had come. I was still lying on my back, looking around me, eyes wide open. And then it happened! Two individual lights were hovering around above our heads, then seemed to crash land on the floor next to me. I carefully leant over the side of the bed. Nothing. By now I started to think. Perhaps these were fire flies? I’d never to my knowledge seen one for real and got rather excited now. “There, there it goes, into the bathroom” I said. I realised I had seen two because it had been flying in front of our mirrorred wardrobe doors, lol. The lights were bright and I thought if we’d have about a dozen of these flies the whole room would be alight. I MUST see this firefly. I switched on the bedlight, but of course I could never see it like that. In the bathroom I looked for something. It was slightly dimmer there and I was lucky. I saw a glowing something there in the corner next to the vanity. I bend down to have a good look. It was like an ordinary size fly, but it had a green body, which emitted some electricity, like a signal off on, off on. Well, I called hubby and together we had a close look. Then I got the torch and shone on it. It just looked like an ordinary fly, but a lovely emerald green. We switched the light off again and went to bed, only to be followed by the fire fly. It did some more loops and zig zags and dives and then disappeared all together. I had seen quite a few, but figured out now, that the glassed louvre windows would have multiplied the light of its reflection.
Nothing happened for some nights. I was just giving up hope ever to see another one, when suddenly our “friend” was back. We have all the doors open during the day and it could easily have flown in then. But here it was back doing the loops an spirals, like a firework display. I am really fond of fire flies now and am still investigating why they can give off this strong yellow light.
A year went by. No adventures in the winter, nothing during spring time, and I was beginning to wonder if our friend would return. And it did! It came on Christmas night. And it was even raining lightly outside. But “Sam” gave us another of his wonderful displays, just like the little sparkles kids have at New Years eve. A few nights had passed, but I was sure we wouls see more of him. Funny I never saw them outside in the garden in the evening, well, not so far anyway.
The fire flies really facinate me and I am so happy that they are not a fantasy of Dr. Seuss. I will find out more about these extra ordinary creatures. And I did. They give off this light as a calling signal to the opposite sex. Now that is interesting!

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