Firefly populations are disappearing

International Herald Tribune

BAN LOMTUAN, Thailand: Thousands of fireflies fill the branches of trees along the Mae Klong River here, flashing on and off in unison - relentless and silent, two times a second, deep into the night.

Nobody knows why.

The fireflies, all males, sit on the tips of the leaves and hone their flashes into a single synchronized mating call - and then continue without a pause as if they were driven by an invisible motor.

"It's one of the most amazing things you'll ever see," said Sara Lewis, a professor of biology at Tufts University, near Boston. Evolutionary biologists have studied synchronous flashing for 200 years, she said, and it remains a mystery.
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