Quick as a flash himself, Davis arcs a long-handled mesh net through the humid coastal air, ensnaring his tiny target. Pixabay
The petition says the Breakwater Beach development is destroying one of only seven freshwater swales where the firefly was previously found.
"They were superabundant in that one spot," said Christopher Heckscher, an environmental scientist at Delaware State University who "rediscovered" the Bethany Beach Firefly in the late 1990s.
A lawyer for the developer questioned the petition's timing and said it relies on limited data from two decades ago.
"Breakcap LLC has no reason to believe that any fireflies live in or along the interdunal swale within Breakwater Beach, let alone that Breakwater Beach is critical habitat for any species," attorney Francis X. Gorman wrote in an email.
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"It is curious that they are now — only after Breakcap LLC has obtained all required legal approvals to construct Breakwater Beach — seeking to have the Bethany Beach firefly listed as a federally-endangered species, notwithstanding the admitted decades-long understanding of the firefly's alleged limited range," Gorman added.
Davis, a biologist with Delaware's environmental department, began a survey in late June. He said his team caught and released about a dozen Bethany Beach fireflies at four of the first 20-odd sites they checked.
"I'm optimistic that we'll hopefully find some more," said Davis, who hopes to survey at least 40 freshwater swales. He's been limited to state coastal parks, because no private property owner has given him permission to survey their land.
"Photuris bethaniensis" wasn't considered a separate species until Frank Alexander McDermott, a DuPont chemist with a lifelong fascination with fireflies, published his findings in the Smithsonian Institution's "Proceedings of the United States National Museum" in 1953. He described a beetle with a distinct "double greenish flash" he first spotted at the north end of Bethany Beach in 1949. It took him several more years to capture enough specimens to make a scientific determination. Few paid much attention to the firefly thereafter, until Heckscher began a three-year survey in 1998.
"No one knew if it was still around or how common it was at all, pretty much because no one had been looking for it," said Heckscher, who found the firefly at seven of 18 swales he visited.
Davis said he had planned his survey before the federal petition was filed.
Establishing that the firefly still exists is "very important," he said. "I feel like the more we learn, the more questions we have." (VOA)