''Phausis reticulata'', commonly referred to as the blue ghost, is a species of

firefly The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

found in the eastern and central United States. The species is common in the southern

Appalachians The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

, and can be seen in

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, whi ...

, the

Chattahoochee National Forest The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the con ...

, as well as North Carolina's

DuPont State Forest DuPont State Recreational Forest, commonly known as DuPont Forest, is a state forest, located in Henderson and Transylvania counties of North Carolina. The name originates from the fact that the DuPont company arranged the sale of the original ...

and

Pisgah National Forest Pisgah National Forest is a National Forest in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. It is administered by the United States Forest Service, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. The Pisgah National Forest is complet ...

Description

The males of this all-brown species have a short second antennomere (compared to the third) as well as large eyes. Unlike many firefly species found in the eastern and central United States, ''P. reticulata'' males display a steady glow, instead of a species-specific flashing pattern. The light emitted by "blue ghost" fireflies appears to the human eye as blueish-white when observed at night from a distance, but bright green when examined at close range. This discrepancy in the observed color may be due to the

Purkinje effect The Purkinje effect (; sometimes called the Purkinje shift, often incorrectly pronounced ) is the tendency for the peak luminance sensitivity of the eye to shift toward the blue end of the color spectrum at low illumination levels as part of da ...

. Female blue ghosts are wingless, unable to fly, and are paedomorphic, remaining in larval form through adulthood.

Mating

The blue ghost fireflies’ ideal conditions for mating season include warm and moist forest areas that are surrounded by spongy leaf litter. The male fireflies fly a few feet off the ground, spotting glowing females. Phausis Kentucky dorsal oblique

References

External links

Discover Life in America website

Times News Article
Lampyridae Bioluminescent insects Beetles of North America Taxa named by Thomas Say Beetles described in 1825 {{firefly-stub