A rare firefly found in only a few spots along a beach area frequented by central Pennsylvanian vacationers will move forward in consideration for Endangered Species Act protection, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The agency recently announced its intentions for the Bethany Beach firefly and Gulf Coast solitary bee – coastal species, the former East Coast and the latter Gulf Coast, threatened by climate-driven sea-level rise, unchecked development and more – in response to petitions filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Xerces Society.

It’s the first time that a firefly in the U.S. will be considered for Endangered Species Act protection.

The Bethany Beach firefly has been documented at only seven sites along the Delaware coast. Each of the sites is smaller than a football field.

The wetland area that is home to the firefly’s largest remaining population is being developed.

In its petition, the center urged that protecting the firefly is warranted due to ongoing threats, including wetland conversion and light pollution.

Like the bee, the Bethany Beach firefly is also threatened by the failure of state and regional regulatory mechanisms to protect the insects adequately, according to the center.

The lightning bug, identifiable through its unique, green, double, tail blink, had not been found recently along the Delaware coast until a team from Delaware State University went looking for it in the late 1990s and found it in seven interdunal swales, which are wetlands near dunes that are fed by groundwater and rainwater.

“Protection for this firefly can’t come soon enough,” said Candace Fallon, petition coauthor and senior conservation biologist at the Xerces Society. “We’re on the brink of losing a unique piece of Delaware’s heritage.”

She noted that the Bethany Beach firefly has nearly disappeared from three of its seven remaining sites. Six of the firefly’s seven remaining populations are in state parks, but only a single firefly was found at two of those sites during the most recently published survey.

Ongoing construction at the Bethany Beach development site continues to destroy important habitat for the firefly’s strongest remaining population. Loss of that population would greatly lessen the species’ chances of survival because the fireflies are weak fliers and rarely disperse beyond the habitat in which they were born, according to the society.

The USFWS decision is “great news for these two imperiled insects, but we can’t prevent their extinction without actually giving them the emergency-room protection that only the Endangered Species Act can offer,” said Tara Cornelisse, a scientist at the center and lead author of the petitions. “We’re losing insects across the globe, and our rapidly declining fireflies and native bees desperately need our help right now.

“In a time when they need all the help we can give, protecting imperiled insects under the Endangered Species Act is vital. Unless the firefly and bee are protected, they’ll become victims of the perfect storm of climate change, pesticides and poorly planned coastal development.”

According to the center, protecting insects under the act is an important piece of saving the world’s insects from what is increasingly understood as an insect apocalypse caused by habitat loss, pesticides, climate change and other threats.

Recent evidence shows that more than 40 percent of insect species could be facing extinction.

The Gulf Coast solitary bee appears as close to the edge as the Bethany Beach firefly. It was discovered by scientists in 1993, when it was found only in 15 locations from the coast of Mississippi to near Panama City, Florida. In 2012, when the last Florida-wide count was conducted, only 47 individuals were documented at just six sites.

It might gain protection because of the loss of its single host plant, the Coastal Plain honeycomb head.

Following up on its decision, the USFWS will initiate a scientific status review and public comment period before making a final decision on whether to protect the firefly and native bee.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.6 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

The Xerces Society is a nonprofit, science-based organization that protects the natural world by conserving invertebrates and their habitat.

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