The Bethany Beach firefly is threatened

The Bethany Beach firefly lives along the shore in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. For firefly enthusiasts, finding one is getting more and more challenging, and scientists fear it may soon blink out entirely.

Here’s what’s driving this lightning bug toward extinction.

• Waves: Warming ocean temps, rising sea levels and the resulting big waves can submerge the firefly’s coastal territory — it lives very close to the water — and contaminate its home with salt.
• Light: This little bug only wants to blink during full darkness, and light pollution can throw off its ability to mate. If you live on or near the coast in one of these three states, please consider turning off your outdoor lights at night.
• Pesticides: A landscape contaminated with insecticides, herbicides and more creates a toxic home for these fireflies.
• Development: One of its best coastal dune swales, i.e. home to this bug, was recently developed.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed listing the Bethany Beach firefly as threatened. It’s not a list that any creature big or small really wants to be on, and yet it’s an important step to saving this firefly from extinction because the Endangered Species Act works.

It’s good to see the agency acting to save this coastal dweller.

Picture: The photo above isn’t of the Bethany Beach firefly. If any reader has a good or great photo of the bug, we’d gladly add it to this post.