Summer night and firefly by the rice fields has always been a romantic memory for Chinese people, suggesting an ideal relationship between human and environment in old times, and many ancient Chinese poems praise these nostalgic scenes. There are around 150 species of firefly in China, as the water, light pollution and over usage of fertilizer and pesticides, many of them are facing great threat, not to mention the disappear of various lakes, rivers and wetlands they need to survive.
This firefly species (curtos costipennis) is a local species in Lower Yangtze River basin, appears more early than all other ones, and give out green and yellow light, often continuously lighten so the trail is a solid line, naturally graceful and elegant. But they disappear rapidly due to the loss of habitat, water and light pollution. I spent 20 nights outdoors in the whole June in “plum raining season” in search of them in the suburb wetlands and woods of Shanghai and Suzhou, witnessed almost the whole mating season of this mysterious woods fairy.
