The little "at dusk" fireflies.

[rmb...@istar.ca]

Once again this year I've been treated to the sight of hundreds of
little blinks from fireflies just before nightfall. I've been calling
these "at dusk" fireflies because they've actively blinking in the
evening when the light is dim, blink for a short while, then shut down
at "true dark". It's like something out of a fairy tale setting.

I managed to snatch one out the air a few nights ago, cool it down and
get some photos. iNaturalist pegs it as Little Gray Firefly, Photinus
marginellus.

I've been trying to get photos of them in action, but they blink
during a time when it's still just a tad too light to get the blinks
to show up. After dark I can get the bigger guys with a long
exposure, their blinks show up brighter, but these are small and tease
with a very short blink.

At any rate, it's nice when there's a calm evening to walk around
outside and see all the little lights. Unfortunately that is also the
time the mosquitoes come out in force.

Rose-Marie, north of Perth Road Village

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 7/24/2026 8:57 AM, rmb...@istar.ca wrote:
> Once again this year I've been treated to the sight of hundreds of
> little blinks from fireflies just before nightfall.  I've been calling
> these "at dusk" fireflies because they've actively blinking in the
> evening when the light is dim, blink for a short while, then shut down
> at "true dark". It's like something out of a fairy tale setting.

* yes, we've been seeing these as well. It's great to have a name for
them. We've generally had very few Blink Beetles (our English name for
the Lampyridae) here, which we've attributed to the severity of last
year's drought, but these dusk blinkers seem to be the most abundant kind.

fred.
============================================== >

> I managed to snatch one out the air a few nights ago, cool it down and
> get some photos.  iNaturalist pegs it as Little Gray Firefly, Photinus
> marginellus.
>
> I've been trying to get photos of them in action, but they blink during
> a time when it's still just a tad too light to get the blinks to show
> up.  After dark I can get the bigger guys with a long exposure, their
> blinks show up brighter, but these are small and tease with a very short
> blink.
>
> At any rate, it's nice when there's a calm evening to walk around
> outside and see all the little lights.  Unfortunately that is also the
> time the mosquitoes come out in force.
>
> Rose-Marie, north of Perth Road Village
>

--
------------------------------------------------------------
---------Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad ------------ Fragile
Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/ 6
St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
------------------------------------------------------------

[cvetter]

My daughter in Chelsea qc has them in abundance this year.  She lives in a forested cottage area with a ravine beside her.  We also have the little crepuscular ones in north Russell.  They don't blink for long.

Candice 

Sent from my Galaxy Tab A

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