![]() Won’t someone pity the lanternfly? In fact, the New York Times did find a few conscientious objectors. “Harming our city’s wildlife is broadly prohibited,” says Dan Kastanis, a spokesman for NYC Parks, “but in an effort to slow the spread of this troublesome species, the current guidance remains: If you see a spotted lanternfly, please squish and dispose of this invasive pest.” A murder campaign is in effect, the citizenry stirred up. The authorities already want the newcomers gone. One hypothesized they might like to warm themselves on the glass another that they preferred massing on smooth surfaces.) (Why do they flock to office buildings? Researchers aren’t sure. 23 before I got to the end of the building, most smashed and smeared on the concrete, a tie-dyed lanternfly killing field. Out for a walk recently, I had started counting at the entrance to a downtown office tower and reached No. Now they’re everywhere underfoot - among us, around us, on us, with us. You have to wonder if they are, if they can really be, serious. But they are also slow-moving, weak-flying, crowd-tending - a plague of doofuses. Spotted (nearly leopard print) as the name suggests but not, in fact, a fly, the spotted lanternfly has two sets of wings, its under-set brilliant red, a cape like something André Leon Talley might have worn - finery to be displayed at moments of danger to warn or to intimidate. Just two years ago, the bugs arrived in the big city, overdressed and a little dumb. You roll your eyes, tap a foot to clear a path - nothing. Like novices, out-of-towners, they go slowly, clogging the pavement. They are new(ish) New Yorkers, your flighty, frustrating neighbors. If you’ve spent any time at ground level, you know the type. My passenger, all one inch of him, was a Lycorma delicatula, a spotted lanternfly. ![]() He (I think “he,” though I didn’t turn him over to check for the female’s telltale red valvifers at the distal end of the abdomen) froze when he sensed I saw him, playing dead. In the humid wedge of a revolving door, a guest had pushed in with me. This ‘lantern’ is in fact an elongated part of the head! Despite not emitting light, the diversity of style is nonetheless incredible, with some growing to larger than the insect body.Office-bound, I had company. Therefore, although we now know that they do not light up, the name has stuck, and lanternflies will likely forever be known for a behaviour they never exhibited.” Since then, scientists have questioned this finding and it has now been pretty comprehensively falsified… Why Merian would make this false claim is unclear but it is possible that she confused the lanternfly with a bioluminescent click beetle that can be found in the same region. “This strange myth seems to stem from an early description of lanternflies from 1705… German artist-naturalist Maria Sybilla Merian… wrote that the head of a lanternfly can light up at night when both sexes are present, and that the light is bright enough to read by. Researcher Matt Hayes answers this question for us: Why is it called a lanternbug if it does not light up? Despite their name, they do not emit light but do appear to hold a ‘lantern’ aloft their head. They are part of the insect group Hemiptera (true bugs), and so have a piercing, straw-like mouthpart through which they eat. Lantern bugs, Fulgora and Pyrops, (also known as lanternflies) are found across south and south east Asia, and the Americas mostly in tropical regions. Create a lantern bug light holder to celebrate the festival together. At this time of year, people across the world will be celebrating Diwali or Deepawali, also known as the Indian festival of lights.
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