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Keep us strong. You power public media.Donate todayTuesday, July 14, 2026Good morning! Daniel Potter

Even people who really don’t like bugs will often make an exception for fireflies on a warm summer night.

This time of year, they’re hard to ignore in places like Tennessee, and seeing a critical mass of them at dusk can feel magical.  

Fireflies, or lightning bugs if you prefer, are a rare example of terrestrial bioluminescence, Christy Bills told me recently. 

Bills manages the Natural History Museum of Utah’s collection of invertebrates, and she’s big on demystifying bugs for the public, working to ease the fear many people have around them, since it can undercut folks’ enjoyment of the natural world. 

Fireflies might just light a different way forward…

WHAT TO KNOW

Photo: Rain Wu / Unsplash

So how and why do fireflies light up? 

“They have two enzymes that come together, and that’s how they make the light,” Bills says; other instances of bioluminescence that occur on land include some mushrooms and millipedes, Bills says, but it’s much more common in the deep ocean.   

Fireflies light up for a few reasons, from finding mates to warding off predators: “The light says ‘hey, I taste nasty.’ But also, in areas where there’s more than one species, the signaling, the flashing pattern, is species-specific to bring in a mate of your own species.”  

Put another way, that pattern is a kind of morse code that fellow fireflies of a given kind will recognize, Bills says… unless. Some species have evolved to signal to different species to lure in food. Effectively, they use their prey species’ “code” to order lunch.

Diabolical? Bills shrugs: “We all gotta eat.”  

What else to know about fireflies 

Technically a family of beetles that includes more than 2,000 species, fireflies have been around since the time of the dinosaurs.  

Like many other bugs seeing declines, Bills says “firefly populations are diminishing around the United States.” The causes for that are not fully understood, but Bills sees investigating this as an opportunity for participatory science. Also known as citizen science, such efforts are a way folks like you can help scientists get a clearer snapshot of what’s going on. 

That happens to be something we’re into here at Nashville Public Radio through the iNaturalist app (Apple | Google). You can record your observations (not just fireflies but other animals, cool plants, birds, etc) and share them as part our regional effort, the Appalachian Signal Species project.  

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and Nashville Public Radio members

On today’s episode of the NashVillagerpodcast 
with host Nina Cardona 🎙️ 

Did Tennessee school districts learn from one system’s attempt to ban a landmark piece of historic literature by a beloved Tennessee author? On one end of the state, a historic landmark celebrating the important legacy of Alex Haley and the family story he told in Roots. On the other end, a school district’s decisions that made Haley’s book the poster child for the book banning debates. Plus the local news for July 14, 2026 and the contracting of access to TennCare. 

Listen and subscribe on your favorite podcasting app
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MORE TO KNOW

• Crime is down in Nashville so far this year. MNPD says homicides, aggravated assaults, robberies, violent crimes, property crimes and car thefts are all down by double-digit percentages compared to last year. That’s in line with a broader trend nationwide, according to the FBI.
   
• If you’re driving on the interstate these next few days — heading to the beach, perhaps —  expect to see law enforcement. The yearly Operation Southern Slow Down will be targeting speeding road-trippers in Tennessee as well as Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. The coordinated effort will be watching for speeding, aggressive driving and other violations in an effort to prevent crashes and promote safety.
   
• Families of immigrant children who are very sick or disabled and need help from the state are getting a reprieve from a state policy change threatening deportation. Late last month, three doctors filed a lawsuit challenging that policy, and a judge granted a temporary restraining order, which has now been extended to Friday.

FROM THIS IS NASHVILLE

Justin Lee Williams didn’t set out to become an in-demand line dancing instructor. Actually, it was a real estate career that didn’t quite materialize, resulting in a fall-back job at a Boot Barn with a side gig teaching bachelorettes to boot, scoot and boogie. Then came the viral video shared by Shania Twain, and the rest has been a rocketship ride. Nothing gets timid dancers out onto a vacant dance floor like a well-known line dance so, today we’re learning how a Black man from Pulaski saw an opening to bring us together over scissor steps and shuffles.

Catch This is Nashville with host Blake Farmer on YouTube,
or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 
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