WTH? \u00a0 What’s that? \u00a0That is a family name for a somewhat common insect. \u00a0Lamp in the name should give it away. \u00a0Firefly, lightning bug or glowworm. \u00a0These creatures are of the family Lampyridae. \u00a0And actually, they are NOT a fly (order diptera), \u00a0nor are they a bug (order hemiptera), and they for sure aren’t a worm. \u00a0 Lightning bugs or fireflies are part of the order coleoptera–a beetle.<\/p>\n
I graduated college and did not know any of this. But because I had some students interested in the entomology contest back about 2003, I had to learn this stuff. \u00a0They should be a fire beetle or lightning beetle. \u00a0No matter what you call them, they are a cool insect. \u00a0All because of their bio-luminescence. \u00a0The whole “light” deal is awesome.<\/p>\n
Tonight, after the sun had set, I sat on a table in the front yard. \u00a0NO WIND! \u00a0Yes!!!! \u00a0 And we had a really nice 1\/2″ of rain this morning. \u00a0Not enough, but better than yesterday. \u00a0I looked to the south of the house, down the draw that used to contain about 50 does. \u00a0Now, just 4, yes FOUR. \u00a0That was cool. \u00a0But the really cool part was all of the lightning bugs, fireflies or whatever you want to call them.<\/p>\n
I sat there and realized that this is the first of the lightning bugs that I have seen this year. \u00a0I guess they need watered in order to grow. \u00a0Whatever. \u00a0All that I do know is that it was enjoyable sitting there, watching them fly and light up the evening.<\/p>\n
Of course, it is always cool to hit one in a vehicle and have the smeared stain glowing on a windshield.<\/p>\n
Redneck definition of bio-luminescence. \u00a0“There it was, just shining like a diamond in a goat’s butt. \u00a0That or smeared lightning bug guts on a windshield. ”<\/p>\n
A decade or so ago. \u00a0Probably late 90s. \u00a0Maybe, 98 or 99. \u00a0I had a young female student walk into class. \u00a0She said, “Mr. Kelln, do you know what was the last thing that went through the bug’s brain when it hit the windshield?”<\/p>\n
I replied, “No, I don’t.”<\/p>\n
And she answered, “His ass! \u00a0Haaa!”<\/p>\n
Great kid with great parents and I take great enjoyment knowing that she is now a teacher with several of her own kids. \u00a0I hadn’t thought of that story in awhile. \u00a0But seeing those lightning BEETLES tonight made me think of it.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow probably isn’t going to be as good as today was. (today, we got some rain and no wind–that’s hard to beat in this part of paradise) \u00a0But, that only means that we will be one day closer to a really good day. \u00a0Peace out, brother\u2026.or sister. \u00a0Or whatever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WTH? \u00a0 What’s that? \u00a0That is a family name for a somewhat common insect. \u00a0Lamp in the name should give it away. \u00a0Firefly, lightning bug or glowworm. \u00a0These creatures are of the family Lampyridae. \u00a0And actually, they are NOT a fly (order diptera), \u00a0nor are they a bug (order hemiptera), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2325,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324\/revisions\/2325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}