Firefly Vs. Lightning Bug: In Florida The Answer Is ...

FLORIDA — Many of our favorite childhood memories of summer nights are tied to lightning bugs, the flying insects that, to our squealing, youthful delight, shine a light from their abdomens. Or — and we realize we’re drawing a battle line here — are they correctly called “fireflies"?

The question is vitally important as warm temperatures bring us outside more at night. No one wants to be that person standing in the middle of a California beach waxing poetically about fireflies. Right? Right?

What you call these prolific bugs that seem to bring the starlit sky to the ground level depends on where you live. That’s according to a poll of 14,000 Americans conducted by YouGovAmerica, a London-based research and analytics company.

We’re lightning bug people in Florida, according to the lightning bug versus firefly poll.

Those in the South (Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia) tend to say lightning bugs (56%) over fireflies (32%).

But the results are not absolute, so that person in California yammering on about fireflies can claim to have brought the term to the West Coast and perhaps spark some conversation about other traditions introduced to their region.

Or they might get into a war of words.

People take their local vernaculars seriously.

So, if you live in the western third of the country, call them fireflies if you want to go along with the crowd. In those areas, 3 in 5 people, or 60 percent, call the insects fireflies. People who live in Pacific and mountain regions are unified on that.

About 3 in 5 people in Upper Midwest states call the insects lightning bugs. In the South, about a third of people prefer the more fanciful term fireflies over lightning bugs, and about half of people in the Northeast call them lightning bugs.

But who are we to argue? What do you think, Florida? Are they fireflies or lightning bugs? Tell us in comments.