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Name: Roddy
Status: other
Age: 30s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2000-2001
Question:
People in our community collect lightning bugs to sell every year. Is this having a negative effect on the firefly population? It seems that we are seeing less and less each year.

Replies:
I don't know anything specifically about the effects of collecting on lightning bug populations, but in general if what you perceive as a decline in numbers is real - and it isn't always that easy to tell - it probably is a combination of factors. Nature is very complex and usually habitat changes are the most important factor in decline of species, but hunting, collecting, etc. can be an important factor as well.

J. Elliott

Lightning bugs are insects and like all insects, they will survive even in the face of heavy predation. The bug itself is just the reproductive stage of its life cycle and all it does is mate and the females lay the eggs. They lay many eggs! There have been some really interesting articles (3 I beleive) in the National Geographic magazine within the last 10 years. It would be worth the effort to examine these.

sds

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