Last week when I was out and about, I had a conversation with a reader who had been puzzled about something for years. Why don’t we see fireflies in California?

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San Jose woman bedeviled by fleas in her house It was something I hadn’t thought much about. I had spent many hot summer nights running through my grandmother’s rose garden in Ardmore, Oklahoma, trying to catch the softly glowing bugs. It was as much a part of childhood as going down the road for snow cones or having sweet corn at the state fair.

Since moving to California 29 years ago, I haven’t seen a single twinkle, at least not from a firefly. The woman expressed amazement that other insects had made it into California from distant places. Fireflies live in many parts of the world and could have hitched a ride on boats, but we appear to be firefly-less.

So I decided to investigate and was surprised to discover that California does have fireflies. Ours either don’t glow, glow only faintly or glow only in the larval stage. They mostly seem to prefer Southern California over Northern.

Florida is home to 56 species of fireflies and California has only 18, but we shouldn’t take that personally. Very few fireflies live west of Kansas.

No one is quite sure why. There was a theory that the insects couldn’t make it over the Rockies, but that has been pretty much discounted. Fireflies do prefer wet and humid habitats, which gives them an ample supply of their favorite food — snails. So our climate might not be as popular with fireflies, although we do have humid spots in the state and lots of snails.

Fireflies are interesting creatures. They produce their glow through bioluminescence. They have an organ that mixes the chemicals and gasses to produce the light, and the bugs control how long and how often they glow.

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You would think that drawing attention to yourself like that is an invitation to be eaten by other creatures, but the fireflies also produce a chemical that makes them unappetizing. Creatures that might consider them a snack are warned off by the glow. The larvae also produce the light to protect themselves from predators.

The light also is used to attract mates, but that doesn’t mean the non-glowing ones that we have in California are all bachelors. Those missing the light use pheromones to make a match.

Clarification

Last week I published a letter from Native Animal Rescue about its fawn and deer rescue and rehabilitation team. In editing the letter to shorten it, something went awry. The organization has asked that I clarify that the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley disbanded its fawn and deer team last year, not this year, and that the center only refers calls about fawn and deer to Native Animal Rescue. The center is no longer rescuing or rehabilitating orphaned, injured or ailing fawns and deer.

The Center’s former rescue/rehab team is now a part of Native Animal Rescue’s fawn and deer team, which receives no financial support from the Wildlife Center.

Sorry for any confusion.

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