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Bioluminescence is actual magic. I will take no calls on this matter.
Nah, it legit is, though. Just because someone or most someones understand how something happens doesn’t mean it isn’t magic anymore. It just means that we have a hard magic system. We understand our magic so well that we’ve stopped seeing it as magical, but if you take a step back and take a look at the big picture it becomes clear that the world is magical, and everything around us is this amazing, often confusing, incredible tapestry of Wonder and awe. The world has just ground us down so much that we feel like wonder is strictly for children, that we’re not allowed to feel wonder anymore. Embrace the magic. Even if you know how it works.
“I cast 200 μg Luciferin.”
[Dice noises]
“Nat 15. Your abdomen glows and dims slowly and rhythmically.”
Pathfinder 2e literally has bioluminescence bombs that’s just jarred firefly juice that’s secreted by humanoid fey that resemble the bugs
Eh, what fireflies can do is kinda the base level of the bioluminescence ‘skill’ of the evolutionary tech tree.
https://gizmodo.com/glowing-deep-sea-squid-have-a-complex-form-of-communica-1842472534
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DE89YY7zCio
Humboldt squid skin is bioluminiscent, but roughly akin to a flexible lcd or oled screen, with many different ‘pixels’ capable of being set specifically.
They likely have the ability to communicate by basically displaying different patterns of different colors and brightnesses and translucency, sorta like a human walking around with a sandwich board made of lcd screens, which they can control with a phone app.
They may very well have an entire language they can convey via sequenced or at least specific patterns.
Note: No clue if you can actually trace bioluminescence in fireflies and certain cephalopods to the same common ancestor or if its completely different, independent evolutionary occurances, but my point is there are certainly more and less complex and utility granting forms of bioluminescence.
Magic exists but we call it science
Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science.
- Michael Scott?
- Terry Pratchett
Nah Pratchett is “just because you understand it doesn’t stop it from being magic”
It brings me unimaginable sadness to know that my recently born nephew will grow up in such a region, when just a few years ago you could see hundreds of these guys in any given back yard
I hate blankets of grass so much
Leave your leaves in autumn!
We’ve been living at the same house for about a decade. We have a tiny tiny creek in our back yard with some unmowed area around it. Our yard is chemical free and we have tons of pollinators. We saw single digit numbers of lightning bugs for nearly the time we lived here. Never more than two a night and most nights none showed up.
The past few years we’ve seen an uptick. Not loads, but they seem to be making a small comeback. At least in our yard.
I lived most of my life in areas where fireflies were around, but they weren’t the bioluminescent type,
The house I moved to about 5 years ago is in the woods and 3 months out of the year these guys buzz around my front yard and I’ve even helped a few out of the house.
They never fail to bring a smile to my face.
Are actually that bright? Where I live they are very dim and green.
We used to have so many of them when I was a kid. Their numbers are dwindling. 😭
Saw this just the other day here…
I saw that the other day too. It’s just that 35 years ago, everyone still raked their lawns. Same as 35 years before that.
We are in the middle of an insect apocalypse.
Remember when you were little how many fucking moths there were? Couldn’t keep the porch light on at night or they’d get in the house and you’d be finding moth carcasses all summer.
Now there’s just a few. Hardly see any anymore.
Same for house flies, and bees. I used to have to go and spray for wasps every spring, I don’t remember the last one I saw.
Grasshoppers too. I used to fill buckets with them as a kid. I haven’t seen more than a few in the last decade.
Remember when you needed a bug shield to drive on the highway?
Yes and yes (to the person you replied to). All I’m saying is that that narrative seems to be coalescing around “it’s because people raked leaves.” Does that play a part? Probably. But there’s no way it’s just that. It’s far too pervasive to be “personal actions.” The root cause has to be systemic.
It’s not just the leaves, it’s humans fucking with the environment, on a macro and micro scale. But that’s harder to convey in a single panel
It’s also humans continually expanding and building in previously undeveloped areas. It crowds out other species.
30 years ago it didnt matter if you raked your leaves because there were still plenty of areas for lightning bugs to migrate in from. But when everyone’s surrounded by miles of suburbs the lightning bugs have further to go for you to see them
i tell this to people all the time and they do not believe me
The less I maintain my yard the more lightning bugs we get.
We do not maintain our back yard very well. I refuse to let these amazing insects disappear. We also seed for pollinators as well.
The yard spray folks come around every spring offering me a deal because they are spraying all my neighbor’s yards. I’m the only yard with lighting bugs in the neighborhood.
A Silent Spring was supposed to be a warning, not a how-to.
I feel a little bad for the pest control guy that showed up at my house last spring. I majored in Biology, but did not graduate, my partner has their Masters in Biology and wrote their thesis on ecological damage from heavy metals.
Yeah, my yard looks a little unmanaged, sure, you can see bugs all over the milkweed, that’s intentional. My yard was visited by thousands of bees (and sadly) a dozen or so butterflies daily. Because we had the insects and native plants, we had lots of small birds, and becuase we had lots of small birds, we were lucky enough to have a local Cooper’s Hawk as a regular visitor nearly every day.
The guy offered to do indoor services for spiders and termites. I told him I don’t have any of those because I have a bunch of basement centipedes. He said he could spray for those, and I was like “Why? They’re harmless and they’re the reason I don’t have dangerous spiders and termites in the house”.
My neighbours use to warn me about ticks every summer and how they proliferate in the grass. Since my yard has been a safe haven for lizards I haven’t found a single tick.
Tumbler has one of the worst comment layouts…
Ghibli even made a movie about them
coming from australia, this is super real… we have such a unique set of animals and plants that it’s all just so normal to us, but then you travel overseas and everything is like what you see on tv and in movies
i’m mid 30s, and last year i saw snow falling for the first time in chicago… snow falling is beautiful, and to most of the world it’s just normal - to australians, it just never happens
One of the cool things about living in Ohio for a couple years, didn’t exist in Texas where I was raised.
Also significantly fewer roaches. In my experience they’re more common in the south due to the warmer weather
You would not believe your eyes
When ten thousand fireflies
You already messed up on the second sentence man, its ten million, not ten thousand
Well, shit
edit: in my defense, |i’ve never seen a single firefly, so ten thousand would be enough for me not to believe my eyes
I grew up calling them lightning bugs, and I’m so excited to see a thread full of people calling them the same!
Fireflies is a much cooler name though.
