A little magic for your Monday. Enjoy it while you can, as sadly the entrancing little insect that conjures childlike wonder is also on the endangered list. Our insects are disappearing at an epidemic rate! I opened my FB this morning and was confronted with: Fireflies are now threatened with extinction.

We can choose to just shrug, I suppose, but as the article points out, “[Fireflies are] a valuable diagnostic tool. By injecting chemicals found in a firefly’s tail into human cells, researchers can detect diseases like cancer and muscular dystrophy.” And, The Selangor Declaration of 2010 declared that, “The decline of fireflies is a cause for concern and reflects the global trend of increasing biodiversity loss.”

So from my point of view, shrugging it off is not an option. Insects are at the bottom of the food chain. As they disappear, it affects every living creature that depends on insects for food, not to mention other repercussions related to the balance of nature. And on it goes. We may feel like it is mildly affecting us now, but later, perhaps not. The Monarch butterfly here, the firefly there,… where will it end? We humans like to think we are immune from extinction, but, are we?

If you’re wondering about the science behind fireflies, I found Scientific American’s How and why do fireflies light up? a very interesting read. When I was a kid, I thought fireflies were pure magic.

Blink. They’re gone.

Photo courtesy Taylor Savage, HD Wallpapers

Blink It’s Gone | Extinction © Susan L Hart 2019 | Hart Haiku