“T
he public is not going to see nature as a priority to protect if they don’t have a personal connection to it. I think that’s where fireflies come in. A firefly is an almost immediate connection between whoever sees it and nature. – Marc Branham
20 Winter 2013
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and Furth calls him “the granddaddy of fireflies in this part of the world.” Although he retired in 2001, he hasn’t stopped “fireflying.” Between them, Branham and Lloyd have more than a half-century of working with fireflies and occasionally survey together. Time after time, Branham says, Lloyd tells him a location that used to be prime firefly habitat is gone. “We’ve seen nights where there’s not a single flash,” Branham says. Documenting firefly biodiversity, through the ages and today, is important, Branham says, because he suspects there will come a day when biologists will not be able to find them in nature, and instead will have to pull out a drawer in a collection case or open a