Throughout my millennial decades they've gone from indigenous to childhood memories :(.

I saw a glow-worm some years ago. I thought someone had dropped a glowstick until I took a closer look

Definitely not too common in Finland

Honestly I thought they were fictional creatures until I was about 16 and finally saw one. Never seen them again though.

Lightning bugs are really cool! Where I live, people are usually surprised to find out that there are dozens of species native to the region.

A few years ago, I went on a trip to a different part of the US and they had a species of lightning bug where they all flash synchronously. Instead of flying around the yard, blinking seemingly at random like all the lightning bugs I'd ever seen up to that point, the synchronous ones crawled around in the bushes and trees and then when they flashed, they all flashed at the same time. It was super cool to see.

Another thing I've noticed about adult lightning bugs is that the populations can vary greatly from year to year around here. We might have a year or two with large numbers of them each night during the warmest parts of the year, then a year where they are few and far between.

this year is a huge one for these guys in my area. walking around at dusk has been an amazing light show. i feel blessed

I am fairly certain that they are merely holding the eye of Sauron

I haven't seen any of these bad boys in probably over a decade. They used to be all over the place.

I love when people find out about stuff that delights them ^^

Lightning bug's range is pretty wide (they can be found on every continent except Antarctica), but there are much less of them than there use to be.

As a child in the 90s, I would see so many of them flickering. But now, like many other bugs, they are dying off.

Their decline has been so sad. I moved somewhere with fireflies in 2007. The first year they were everywhere. The second year less so and they were completely gone by 2010. I always tried to leave longer grassy areas for them but they were just... gone. It was so so so sad. I didn't grow up with them and that first summer was enchanted and magical.

I have great memories of walking down the road on a hot night with thousands of slowly blinking balls of light. The person who lives in that place now probably doesn't even know that fireflies are supposed to be in the area.