Fireflies put on a summertime light show

Now on to our Sunday best. A story I had a lot of fun chasing through the dark a few years back. Whether you call them fireflies or lightning bugs, they never fail to make a summer evening sparkle. Every summer they pour in like a mountain stream. Over the hill we go. Y'all have fun, bye. Into the great smoky mountains of Tennessee. An unstoppable migrating madness. So many the National Park Service has to monitor this wildlife to make sure it doesn't get too wild. It's really a good shot. We followed the herd as they made their way to trolleys that drove them up a winding road to a remote campground where rain or shine they receive precise instructions. By nine o'clock voices down, lights off and we're going to see the best show ever. As the sun set and the moon rose we watched as they wandered off into the blackness. Lawn chairs and flashlights in hand. Why are you sitting in the woods in the dark? Because she told me you could do it. Mary McCormick and her three neighbors drove all the way from Knoxville to find this perfect place under the pines. We've been laughing because it looks like people think there's a parade or something going down the street. It all seemed a bit off until that is the twinkling began. Yeah I see some. In the pitch black it was as if the stars had come to settle in the forest. A silent symphony of fireflies by the thousands. A sight not easily captured on camera. The whole forest is lit up like Christmas time in some crazy psychedelic way. Stumbling around in the dark we literally bumped into Mary Lattimore and Naomi Yang. What's so beautiful is sort of the darkness and then the brightness and the darkness is almost like the forest is breathing. You might have guessed these aren't your garden variety fireflies. This species gathers in swarms and flashes all at once. We have them back home in Kentucky but they don't have their act together. Synchronous fireflies they're called or as these bug-eyed fans call them. To figure out this strange phenomenon we turn to the park's chief entomologist Ranger Becky Nichols. They'll all start at the same time and flash somewhat randomly and then they'll all go off at the same time so it'll be completely dark and then they'll all start again. Nowhere in the western hemisphere is there a bigger population of synchronous fireflies than right here at this tiny campground. Why here is there a big concentration of them here? We think it's primarily because it's just prime habitat for them. This is where the fireflies are in the third drawer down is where most of them are. The scientific name for the synchronous firefly is Photinus Carolinus one of 19 species here in the Great Smoky Mountains. We have a lot of specimens of this particular species. This is the one that everybody comes to see. Oddly the firefly or lightning bug as many of us call them isn't really a fly or a bug it's actually a beetle. So that's the lantern. It's amazing that that much light comes out of something that small. Yeah it really is. There's no almost zero heat produced it's 100% light. So they're way more efficient than a light bulb. That's right yeah we could learn something from them. So is it a form of I mean is this talking in a way? In a way yeah. Sweet talking to be more precise because the fireflies flashing is all about getting a date. It's a mating display. The males flashing to the females who then respond with a glow of their own. This volunteer whose name is glow really it is summed up the ritual this way. It's typical male behavior. My light's brighter than your light and I can keep my light on longer than you can and the females pick out the ones that do the best job. So it's like a singles bar. Yeah that's like the jersey shore out here for fireflies. Sean Ford came here with his girlfriend Kristen Blossom. It's like symbolic that males and females are finding each other out here and we're finding each other out here kind of on a date. It's corny super corny. It's all very g-rated however. You ready? The Mays family's only problem was sticking to the rules. Unlike back home no mason jars allowed here. I usually grab them like this and I kind of peek and throw them in the jar. And then what do you do? We usually take them inside the house put them on the table and then go to sleep and watch them overnight. Watching or catching fireflies is almost a rite of passage. Ranger Caitlin Wirth says they're like little pied pipers of summer. One of the things I love about this event is that it brings people totally out of their comfort zones. I mean most of these people that come to this many of them might not go into the woods during the daytime and they're coming out just to sit in the woods in the dark. It's all very fleeting. Sadly adult fireflies only live a matter of weeks which is why the Garland family says don't miss your chance to enjoy nature's nightlife before the glow is gone for another year. We are so used to seeing man-made wonders such as fireworks which are awesome but this has nothing to do with man. It's completely natural. It's just incredible. It's really incredible. You just can't explain it to anybody. They have to see it.