Does it feel like you've seen a burst of fireflies this summer? You probably have!
This year will go down as a "firefly boom," not just here in Michigan, but across the country.
Sara Lewis, a professor of evolutionary and behavioral ecology at Tufts University and the author of the book, Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies, joined Stateside to talk about why we're seeing so many of the bugs this summer.
"The silent sparks that we admire so much in our backyards and our neighborhood parks, they have a backstory. They don't just suddenly blink into existence to light up our summer evenings," Lewis said.
Instead, she explained, they have an entire lifecycle that most people are unaware of when they're out of the public eye.
Listen above to hear why fireflies are so numerous right now when, paradoxically, they're on the decline all over the world, and what the "magic of the firefly" can tell us about the natural world.
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