Synchronous fireflies, known as Photuris frontalis, blink in the woods near the Congaree River on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Congaree National Park holds an annual event for visitors to view the fireflies, which blink for a few weeks every May and June.
Sam Wolfe for NPR hide caption It’s twilight on a warm May evening at the Congaree National Park in Hopkins, South Carolina. A wooden boardwalk weaves through cypress knees, and towering loblolly pines. A viewing platform holds the lucky few that won the park lottery this year – an opportunity to see thousands of fireflies, blinking in synchrony, for a few short weeks this spring.
Hrudaya Reddy and her husband Shiva Vanamala traveled here from San Francisco, Calif. Vanamala says he recalls seeing swarms of fireflies in a forest as a child in Karnataka, India. “It sounds a little fantastical to me now – I'm not sure if that was a dream or if it really happened.
” As dusk turns to dark, the dream becomes real: Thousands of fireflies start to flash together in a rhythm. The couple say it’s beyond their expectations. “It’s like magic is happening,” Reddy says.
Vendalam describes them as “shooting stars on the ground. Pretty incredible,” he says. According to the National Park Service, there are just three types of fireflies in North America that are synchronous, meaning they coordinate their belly lanterns to flash at exactly the same time.
The species here in Congaree National Park is Photuris.
