Fading Fireflies

AP News - 520 days ago
Fading Fireflies
In this photo taken on Aug. 28, 2010, Helen Mester sits on her deck visiting with friends in South Bend, Ind. Mester, a retired computer network administrator, has been counting fireflies in her backyard for three years for the Firefly Watch program. Scientists are busy analyzing a summer's worth of observations of the mesmerizing insects collected by a network of backyard volunteers in hopes of verifying whether anecdotal evidence suggesting the luminous insects are on the decline is correct, and if so, what's behind their shrinking populations. (AP Photo/Joe Raymond)