The butterfly gardeners' motto might be "if you plant it, they will come." I picked up a few packs of parsley and dill plants recently, intending to add them to a new butterfly garden bed in my yard. Parsley, dill, and other members of this plant family provide food for black swallowtail caterpillars.

Photo: © Debbie Hadley, WILD Jersey

Before I could get the plants in the ground, a black swallowtail butterfly found the parsley and deposited some eggs on the foliage. Yesterday, I discovered this caterpillar resting on a leaf. The youngest black swallowtail caterpillars resemble bird droppings, clever camouflage if you ask me. What critter is going to eat something that looks like poop?

I noted that the caterpillar wasn't interested in eating, which could only mean one thing - it was preparing to molt. Sure enough, by this afternoon the caterpillar looked noticeably different (see insect picture). By the time it reaches its final instar, the caterpillar will be a bright green, with black and yellow markings on each segment.

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Not long ago, I blogged about Firefly Watch, a research project that enlists an army of volunteer firefly watchers to gather data about their status. Scientists and firefly enthusiasts believe these twinkling summer bugs are in decline, thanks mostly to human impacts on their habitat.

Commercial harvesting of fireflies may soon lead to their extinction.
Photo: Flickr user seanmcgrath

The folks at Firefly Watch sent out an email alert today about another serious threat to firefly populations - commercial harvesting. Fireflies produce an enzyme called luciferase, a key ingredient in the chemical reaction that allows them to generate light. In the lab, luciferase can be a valuable tool in biomedical research and food safety testing.

This market for luciferase has put a bounty on the tails of native fireflies, and some fear the demand may lead to their extinction. Scientists buy dessicated fireflies or powdered luciferase from chemical suppliers. Where do the chemical companies get the fireflies? Mostly from a little business based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee called the Firefly Project. Sounds innocent enough, right?

Each year, the Firefly Project posts ads in local papers, inviting residents to make a little money doing something fun - collecting fireflies. In 2008, the going price was $12 per ounce - about 600 fireflies. For many of the firefly collectors, it's a family affair, with parents and children spending evenings together catching as many fireflies as they can. The work takes on the flavor of a good 'ole fashion competition, with newspapers reporting the season tallies for counties, towns, and families. And while everyone's having all this fun, fireflies are suffocating in glass jars by the thousands.

And here's the real kicker. Twenty years ago, scientists developed a synthetic version of luciferase that's actually superior to the natural enzyme. There's no need to harm a single firefly for research purposes today. But chemical companies keep selling them, so the Firefly Project keeps supplying them, and the harvest of fireflies continues.

Several concerned scientists have started a campaign called FLASH Together Now to end the commercial harvest of fireflies. You can learn more about the firefly harvest, and why it needs to end, on their website.

Take Action to Stop the Commercial Firefly Harvest:

1. Email the Firefly Project (the company that pays people to collect wild fireflies) and ask them to stop harvesting fireflies. Their email address is fireflyproject@yahoo.com.



2. Write to the Sigma-Aldrich Corporation and ask them to stop selling luciferase produced from fireflies and other firefly products.

   Sigma-Aldrich Corporation
   P.O. Box 14508
   St. Louis, Missouri 63178

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Whenever the subject of mosquito control comes up, someone gives a fervent argument for installing purple martin houses and bat houses. Stores that cater to bird enthusiasts often tout the purple martin houses as the best solution for keeping your yard mosquito free. Bats, which may not be the most beloved of mammals, are defended with the claim that they consume hundreds of mosquitoes per hour.

Purple martin
Photo: Flickr user Dori (CC license)

But here's the truth: neither purple martins nor bats provide any significant measure of mosquito control. That's not to say that they don't eat mosquitoes - they do. But mosquitoes make up a very tiny portion of their diets.

Multiple studies of wild bats have consistently proved that mosquitoes are less than 1% of their diet. In purple martins, the percentage of mosquitoes in their diet is slightly higher - a whopping 3%, at most.

Think about it. A bird or a bat that feeds on insects must invest considerable energy in flying around, catching bugs in mid-air. It's seeking the biggest caloric bang for its buck. Given the choice between a mosquito morsel, a beefy beetle, or a mouthful of moth, it's going to look right past the mosquito.

So the bottom line is this - if you like purple martins or bats and want to provide habitat for them, go for it. Just don't expect them to be the miracle cure for your mosquito problem.

Want more information on how you can control mosquitoes without pesticides? Check out my article Mosquito Control at Home. Print it out and share it with your neighbors, too!

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With Wednesday comes another Bug of the Week challenge. This week's mystery insect is kind of a twist on a familiar bug. Can you name the species? Leave a reply with your answer, and stop back next Wednesday to see if you were right. As always, I've left some clues in the forum to help you.

Last week's mystery bug was a beauty, wasn't it? I love an insect that disguises itself as something else. At first glance, it looks like a wasp, but if you looked closely you noticed the scaly wings that characterize the butterflies and moths. Indeed, the photo showed a Texas wasp moth (clever name, eh?). Congrats to weirdbuglady for submitting the only correct answer.

Photo: Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org

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