Last Saturday night I went on a special mission. Being me, I was very excited about it. But to begin at the beginning it had all started when I was contacted by the Observatoire des Vers Luisants by email in early July asking me if I had seen any glow worms in my garden this year because I had let them know that I had seen at least one in the summer of 2012.
As it so happened my husband had spotted one in the garden the day before we received the email. I was able to reply that we had already had a sighting in the garden. There are two possible insects that could emit light in the evening, the fireflies or the glow worms. What we have seen are glow worms.
This is a photograph taken in 2012 from a post “It is a matter of perspective”. I did not think to take a photograph this year.
When I responded to the enquiry that we had a sighting in the garden, I also indicated that I would be prepared for any “Special Mission” that might be forthcoming.
Last Friday I was contacted by telephone and asked if I would be able to follow a given route from the house between the 24 and 26 July after sunset. This is the first time I have taken part in one of these “Citizen Science” projects and I was delighted to agree.
I duly received my map which showed me a route from the house towards the village for about a kilometre. I was very pleased with the route because it was exactly where we had seen the glow worms in previous years. The 24 th. was a fine summer evening and we decided to make a supplementary search in the garden before starting on the given route. I am not used to wandering in the garden at night with no light so I managed to fall over the wires holding up the vine posts – I hadn’t expected this mission to be so dangerous!
Whether by coincidence or not, that night the street lighting in our little hamlet was not switched on. Despite walking the route slowly, one behind the other, we did not spot any glow worms. Even the glow worm we had seen in the garden was not there. We were very surprised but posted our zero count as every result is important especially a negative one. We have had an extremely dry period and the edges of the road had been closely cropped in June leaving hardly any vegetation. I do not know whether this would make a difference but I added it to the comment section of my return.
Do you see fireflies or glow worms in your gardens?
a french garden 
Not in my garden, but I have seen glow worms in a nearby churchyard, well away from a road, on a raised south-facing bank which is rarely cut as it isn’t very accessible.
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Sounds as if they have got themselves a comfortable niche there. We had some that occupied the same spot over several years. I don’t know what has happened to them this year. Amelia
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Forgot to say that I live in Lewes in East Sussex
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How exciting! Fireflies and glow worms are such magical creatures. I have never seen them in the UK. In fact I have never heard of fire flies anywhere here. I have seen them in France and Martinique and it was such a wonderful experience. I wonder if sightings of these wonderful creatures gave rise to the idea of fairies.
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It is hard to believe the truth, it seems much more plausible that they are fairies out having a party. Amelia
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How exciting! But a bummer not to get any records.
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It is such a brilliant idea to get everybody out there counting. It would be amazing to be able someday to cover most of France and have records going back years. Amelia
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How lucky to have them visit you. Funnily enough I spent Wednesday night on a glow worm counting walk with the Wildlife Trust in Cambridge of all places (an old chalk quarry). We counted ~20, which the WLT were quite pleased about. I had completely the wrong idea about them flying around etc, ‘cos the female glow worm apparently crawl!
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That sounds so interesting. There are more opportunities to take part in initiatives like that in the U.K. I don’t know if they have fireflies in the U.K. Amelia
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Interesting. We had a very dry May, and so far this year, I haven’t seen fireflies.
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Firefly or glow worm you can imagine people believing in fairies when you see them. Amelia
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Nothing glowing here at night except the stars. If there are any fireflies or glowworms, they’ve stayed well hidden in the 10 years I’ve lived here.
. . . a huge contrast to some years in Michigan and Illinois when driving at night one would regrettably wipe out a large number of them.
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Those must have been fireflies, I’ve never seen any of those. Amelia
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How exciting, no, I’ve never seen them here although I would have thought there might be some; I’ll keep at special look out and let you know if I see any.
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I would imagine you should get them but you have to look at ground level and wait for the periodic flash. Often after dark it is easy to gaze into the sky or look at the treeline in the distance and you could miss them. Amelia
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Thanks for your faithfulness. We have lightning bugs here, but they don’t seem to be as many this year. Sad, because my granddaughter loved them, as sparse as they were.
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I hope there are more for your granddaughter and everyone else next year, they are such a beautiful sight. Amelia
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Magical that you saw one, even if it wasn’t lit up yet. The only place I’ve ever seen them is Borneo, where I saw many thousands lighting up trees along a river.
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I’ve only seen the glow worms on the ground, never fireflies which must look like fairy lights, but I’d love to see those too. Amelia
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I’m not sure that we have glow worms here but I do see a lot of fireflies.
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I’d really love to see fireflies. They do have them in some parts of France so maybe one day…Amelia
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A neighbor and I were just discussing the abundance of fireflies this summer. It’s been just magical. On the other hand, I don’t even know what a glow worm is so I’m off to educate myself! 😀
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The fireflies will make it a summer to remember if there are more than usual. If you know what the fireflies look like you could check low down on the ground after sunset. The adult female does not fly and glows to attract a mate so once you catch sight of one it is quite easy to point it out to someone else as it is stationary. Amelia
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We have some in a north facing bracken covered wall. I see them most nights when I’m closing the shutters!
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If you were interested you could post your sighting at http://www.observatoire-asterella.fr/vers_luisants/index.php?page=2&p=OVL3 . The more participants, the more information that will be gathered and the more accurate will be the statistics :). Amelia
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Loved the descriptive mission Amelia. I have never seen one and was interested to read frog end dwellers experience over here. What happens now, do you keep looking and recording or did they just want that weekends results?
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The special mission was a one day count which I hope has many correspondents all over France and will give them a snap shot (Kodak Brownie) idea of numbers in France. If this is repeated, over the years an idea of population fluctuations could be made. Who knows more variables could be added such as weather condition and agriculture in the area. It will also draw more attention to glow worms. Amelia
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I’ve never seen a glow worm or firefly but I don’t think we have them here
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There are some types pretty much all over the world, however, if you live in a town or large urban area they could be less common. Amelia
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