"The shower hasn't let up. The gold carp is taking a wife, his brother the gong fish is beating the gongs and drums, and the tousa fish is the match-maker. It's dark already and we can't find our way. Come quickly firefly, be nice and light the road. The shower hasn't let up."

As the rain falls on the banks of a forest creek, a gold carp is once again taking a bride.

In full regalia the groom's brother is beating on the drums and the gongs. The matchmaker, all doll ed up, is swaying her hips as she walks, and the self-satisfied groom, surrounded by pressing throngs, is walking proudly along the road. After fetching the bride, there is another joyous march with drums and gongs returning to the groom's home. But they are behind schedule. It turns dark and they lose their way. The gold carp is anxious and want to go home to rest.

Thenceforth, at night people would hear soft calls in the distant woods: "firefly. . . firefly. . . ."

If only your bum could light up: The Taiwanese call fireflies "golden fire ladies," and in ancient times they were called "night brighteners" or "dazzlers." In pre-industrial times, before electric lights were common, fireflies "with bums that light up" were widely used, praised and longed for. As the Chekiangese sing, "Firefly fly down. I'll give you three pennies to buy some straw shoes. I need neither gold, nor silver, just your sparkling tail."

According to a folk song, besides lighting up the road for the gold carp's wedding procession and providing light for the studious but poor Che Yin, these brilliant bottoms also "give father light to plough the fields and brother light to go to Hangchow . . . give mother light to spin and sister light to weave." Of course, a biologist can tell you that even when straining you can't read by the light of a few fireflies--let alone plough, spin, weave or take a journey--and you might hurt your eyes trying. The ancients also left behind many lines of verse in which fireflies are used to dispel one's sorrow:

On a fall evening the fireflies take flight on Wu Mountain.

Flying through the thin curtains they land on my clothes,

Startling the chill among my books and instruments.

Before the eaves, they shoot like stars.

A growing horde, they circle the well and the railing,

Brightening the occasional flower.

White haired, I look on with longing,

Still not home after so many years.

A passing firefly mistakenly enters a humble cottage in the dense forest. Besides accompanying the literary scholar as he reads, it also fills the scholar with melancholy. In particular, when he wakes from his afternoon nap to find that the sun has already set, the exiled scholar feels as if life no longer has meaning. Suddenly, he sees the firefly resting on the mosquito net and he is further gripped with longing for home. "Though your light is thin, adding nothing to the sun and moon, you still illume your simple shape. Lost in the bright of day, you are clear to see in a darkened place--like a loyal official in the hinterland."

A lantern for your spouse: The ancients might have found what follows disappointingly prosaic. Fireflies "holding up their lanterns" are actually "strutting their stuff" to members of the opposite sex. Because daylight greatly interferes with the light fireflies produce, they are nocturnal animals like owls and bats, active at night and resting during the day.

Different kinds of fireflies produce lights of different frequency and wave length. Just as species of birds rely on their unique calls, fireflies use different wavelengths of light to ensure that they don't find "an unsuitable partner." For the most part they give off green light, but there are also species of firefly that emit red, orange, yellow and blue light.

In the broad-leaved forests of Southeast Asia and mainland China, fireflies of the species Pteroptyx malaccae can gather in the tens of thousand on one tree, flashing nearly simultaneously, like a giant neon sign. In this way, they avoid having their lonely solitary lights obscured in the dense forest and losing out in their search for a spouse.

Luciferase enzymes in fireflies go through a series of bio-chemical reactions in which they are oxidized for use as fuel to create light which is sent out from the end of their abdomen. Because 90 percent of the energy consumed becomes light and very little of it is turned into heat, fireflies produce a "cold light" that doesn't burn. It could be called "low-heat oxidation," differing greatly from most forms of oxidation which create great amounts of heat.

A light that won't burn: Considering the human method of using electricity to generate light, in which most of the energy is consumed in the generating of heat, the method the fireflies use is remarkably efficient. Even in the now-popular "cool lights," the energy consumed is just as high. Glass fibers are used only to reduce the heat of the light bulb and not to increase its efficiency. According to estimates, if the firefly method was used to generate electricity, the energy needed to create light could be reduced to a tenth of what it is used now.

With scholars constantly researching the light-producing technique of fireflies, "International Biological Lighting Conferences" are held every once in a while for debate and discussion of the matter.

The vast majority of animals that emit light--such as cuttlefish, jellyfish and hydra--are sea creatures. Among land and fresh water animals, the firefly's ability is extremely rare, shared only by a small number of fungi and helminth. Spread over the tropics and temperate zones, there are 2,000 varieties of fireflies, 30 of which can be found on Taiwan.

Pet Insect: Though lacking economic value like butterflies and bees (which are collected as specimens or used to make honey), because the fly is numerous and harmless--it doesn't burn, bite, prick or sting (see "The Life of a Firefly")--it has become a beloved "pet insect."

When those who are now in middle age speak of their experiences collecting, they become very expressive, but in ancient times people were even crazier for the bug. Among Western women, it was once fashionable to wear a live firefly on the lapel as a kind of broach. Emperor Sui Yang, who led a lavish life of debauchery and ended up losing his crown, once had enormous numbers of fireflies collected and let go in the Chinghua Palace of Loyang. Their light was brighter than the moon. As recorded by Ku Tieh-ching, people living in Soochow would often empty duck eggs, paint them, and make a hole to put in fireflies, creating "a firefly lamp" for children to play with.

It's unfortunate that although the children of today read the story "Reading by the Light of Fireflies" in their elementary school textbooks and see pictures and anatomical drawings of fireflies in encyclopedias and books about animals, few have the chance to experience what it is to chase after them.

Tseng Chen-chi, a 21-year-old native of Taipei, didn't actually see a firefly until she enrolled in the Plant Protection Department of National Pingtung Polytechnic Institute. "They're much smaller than in the pictures." Her reaction can speak for the experience of most of those her age and younger.

Fireflies multiply rapidly, and they're not easily affected by people catching them. Why then are their numbers declining?

The wind in the woods: "The breeze rustles the leaves of the green firmiana on a cool night in early May. Fireflies start to fly around the woodland pond." From these lines of ancient verse we can see what kind of environment fireflies require. Since there is no will to preserve wood ponds and green firmiana and since there is a lack of fresh air in modern cities, the fireflies have had no choice but to flee. The trouble is that even in the country, it is difficult to find scenery where "after the light rain, by the road through the dark pines, fireflies fly out and illuminate the green moss."

Those who spent their childhoods in the country know that rice fields used to be full of fireflies. But as the use of pesticides has grown -- to the point where even snails are being targeted--there has been a resulting lack of food for young fireflies. Yang Ping-shih cites the example of National Taiwan University's experimental fields. Not long ago, you could still catch 40 or 50 fireflies in one night. Later the school made experiments with pesticides there. "Now, even if you turn the field upside down," he says, "you won't find half a firefly."

Lost amid the neon: Water bugs make use of earth dikes for pupation, but newfangled gutters and drainage ditches are lined with cement, and no matter how tough these bugs are, there's no way they can burrow into cement. "Previously, as soon as you got on the road from the Wulai Waterfall along Peishih Creek to Hsinhsien Village, you could see hundreds of Taiwan window fireflies," says Chang Yu-hsing, a student at National Taiwan Ocean University who has observed insects with Chen Jen-chao since high school. "In the past couple of years, since the road has been widened, there are none to be seen. Damage from light is also a major reason they have disappeared."

Perhaps adult fireflies, who use their light to match up with their spouse, have grown dazzled and dazed by the streets lined with lights. With potential mates lost in the glare, they live celibate lives.

Twenty years ago, Japan had already started proceeding with artificial propagation and repopulation of gradually disappearing fireflies. In particular, the originally numerous Luciola cruciata and L. Latoralis have been specially protected in a few stretches of river with strict controls on water quality.

Two years ago, Chang Kuo-hsing, a Hengchun farmer who has fond memories of chasing fireflies as a child, contacted Chen Jen-chao, saying that he hoped he could find a clean water area on his farm to raise fireflies.

Although his main work is still in the labs carrying out experiments on artificial propagation, Chen Jen-chao is very worried about the scarcity of snails, on which fireflies feed. If the environment continues to deteriorate, the light of fireflies will be confined to only a few small areas.

The dream of the fireflies re-realized: Yang Ping-shih, who has made an island-wide investigation of the firefly, says no one knows what water temperature fireflies require and how much oxygen they need dissolved in the water. But from foreign test results and the island-wide investigation, one can say with certainty that the firefly is an insect living by running water that adapts very slowly to environmental change.

While you can still see dragonflies skipping along the water and stick insects floating on the surface of many streams and rivers, the light of the fireflies is missing. "When the environment deteriorates a little," Yang Ping-chih says, "the fireflies are the first to meet misfortune." Japan has spent no small sum trying to breed fireflies. But the cost to produce a single bug has exceeded NT$10,000, and the next hurdle of maintaining and controlling the environment is even more difficult. As a result, the Japanese are concentrating their efforts along the stretches of a few rivers.

It is easy to open up the wilderness, but it is extremely difficult to bring back old scenes and re-realize the dream of the firefly: This is what scientists know in their hearts. "If you want to see fireflies," says Yang Ping-chih, "I am afraid you've got to head to the source of streams, places where people go with difficulty."

Restoring firefly populations to remind people of how things used to be and to teach people how to bring back a pristine environment, says Chen Chao-jen, a technician at the Council of Agriculture who is working to restore populations of fireflies, is more meaningful than just the return of fireflies.

Firefly, Firefly, Fly Easy

Firefly! Firefly!

With your small flashlight,

You fly slowly in the grass.

Laughing, we chase you from behind.

Chase! Chase! Chase to the river's edge.

We watch you flash! Flash! Flying to the other side. . . .

Can we pass along the life experience of this poet? Can you hear the muffled call in the distant woods: "Firefly. . . firefly. . . ." Will the wedding procession of the gold carp make it peacefully home?

[Picture Caption]

"They're much smaller than in the pictures," says Tseng Chen-chi, who had never seen fireflies before carrying out experiments on them.

More than 30 species of fireflies have been discovered on Taiwan, and among them are larger sized species. On the right are two young fireflies of a rare Taiwanese species that grows longer than five centimeters.

Fireflies have "brilliant bums" because their light comes from the end o f their abdomens. (photo courtesy of Chen Jen-chao)

Hengchun farmer Chang Kuo-hsing hopes that the dream of fireflies can be realized once more in a small area by this stream.

"They're much smaller than in the pictures," says Tseng Chen-chi, who had never seen fireflies before carrying out experiments on them.

More than 30 species of fireflies have been discovered on Taiwan, and among them are larger sized species. On the right are two young fireflies of a rare Taiwanese species that grows longer than five centimeters.

Fireflies have "brilliant bums" because their light comes from the end o f their abdomens. （photo courtesy of Chen Jen-chao）

Hengchun farmer Chang Kuo-hsing hopes that the dream of fireflies can be realized once more in a small area by this stream.