Fireflies

"You would not believe your eyes, if ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep..."

This is from the song 'Fireflies' by Owl City. Fireflies are commonly seen in sub-urban and rural parts of India. Even in the bustling cities, a few may be seen at night. However in Singapore, we hardly see any fireflies. Why? The main reason is of course, urbanisation. However, another reason is because of the street bright lights during the night. In India, once night falls in sub-urban areas, it is complete darkness. This wakes up the fireflies and then they start to appear. Well maybe not them but their glowing abdomens. This is the most commonly seen firefly in India.

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Still common is another species of firefly. The ones above are usually seen around bushes and plants, outside the house. This species below is more commonly seen inside houses where it is attracted by the insects around the light.

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These fireflies shown here are rather small ones, of about 2-3 centimetres in length. However, a few years ago there used to be much bigger ones, with a length of up to 6 centimetres. Those luminous and beautiful creatures have now vanished due to urbanisation.