(Photo/Firefly Conservation Research Center Weibo)

Wild fireflies in China face a growing threat as businesses sensationalize the glowing insects as “romantic,” especially around Chinese Valentine’s Day, or Qixi Festival.

A search for “live fireflies” on China’s e-commerce website Taobao yields many online stores selling fireflies in jars as “romantic and creative gifts” for Valentine’s Day. The insects, allegedly bred at firefly farms, are often sold by the dozens. Prices for different packages--usually up to around 300 fireflies--range between 100 and 300 yuan. Comments reveal that most customers purchase them as gifts, though some also buy the insects for their children.

Xinhua News Agency reported that a young man released over 1,000 fireflies as he proposed to his girlfriend at a park in Changzhou, Jiangsu province on Aug. 9, this year’s Qixi Festival. And he’s certainly not the only one utilizing the insects to create a romantic setting.

“A business chain already exists. Wild fireflies are hunted and sold online, after which they are sent to cities to be released in huge quantities...The so-called release actually means death in many cases,” explained an investigative report on China’s firefly industry, which was jointly asembled by Hubei-based NGO Firefly Conservation Research Center (FCRC) and popular science website Guokr.com.

Firefly culture

According to the report, there have been at least 49 online shops on Taobao selling live fireflies in 2016, up 28.9 percent from last year. Meanwhile, the rate of death during transportation for the fireflies being sold is 22.52 percent.

The number of cities organizing firefly observation and release activities is also on the rise. In 2014, there were 17 such events around China, and the number grew to 26 in 2015. As of August, some 23 cities have already held such activities, the report noted.

Fu Xinhua, an associate professor from the College of Plant Science & Technology of Huazhong Agricultural University, told People’s Daily Online that the online firefly business has been growing since 2010, as the insects are often sold as romantic props.

Indeed, the link between fireflies and Qixi Festival has a long history. The insect was often mentioned in Chinese poems from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and often in conjunction with Qixi.

According to Fu, the business will likely continue to thrive despite criticism from the media and NGOs. As long as it remains legal to hunt and sell fireflies, Fu believes the business will stay profitable. Firefly release and exhibition activities usually involve tens of thousands of fireflies bought at an average price of 1.5 yuan each; tickets to such activities are usually sold at 30-40 yuan per person.

(A man use his motorcycle light to catch firefly. Photo/thepaper.cn)

Farm or grave

What’s more, even as sellers cultivate the soothing image of a wholesome firefly farm, many of the fireflies sold are not being bred at all.

During a survey in late July in eastern China’s Jiangxi province, it was discovered that several “firefly farms” were actually just collecting wild fireflies caught by locals for 0.3 yuan each. The price can go as high as 1 yuan when there is huge market demand.

“Farmers in Ganzhou [of Jiangxi] found out that glowing motorcycle lights can imitate the courting signal of female fireflies. Many people have used this trick to hunt for more fireflies. Such traps can vastly reduce the number of male fireflies available to mate, and can therefore affect an entire population’s genetic diversity. It could even mean that some populations die out entirely,” Fu noted.

Fu added that firefly farming requires a lengthy species selection process and advanced technology. He said he was only able to breed three firefly species in the laboratory after 16 years of research.

The report pointed out that the glowing quality of fireflies is a natural instinct during the animal’s reproductive period, which is a crucial stage in its week-long life. Meanwhile, large-scale hunting not only kills individual fireflies, it can also wreak havoc on a region’s ecological environment. And the release of fireflies in cities far from where they were born can threaten local species and even humans with new diseases.

“The ongoing survival of fireflies has been greatly threatened by this business chain, in addition to air, water and light pollution. But it is never about the species alone when it comes to extinction. It is more of a signal, a warning of a collapsing ecological environment,” Fu said.

To save the fragile lives, China has set up its first firefly reservation on Dalei Mountain in the city of Xianning, Hubei province. Spreading across 22 square kilometers, the park currently boasts 17 kinds of fireflies with a total population of 500,000. In Songzi, another city in Hubei, there is currently an initiative to rebuild the local habitats of fireflies. The city hopes that renewed firefly populations in the region can in turn attract tourists, according to the FCRC report.