An entomologist made one of the finds of the year when he discovered a swarm of fireflies thought to no longer exist. Christopher Hecksher, an ecologist and entomologist at Delaware State University, came across what he thought was a member of Pyractomena similis, a species of firefly last documented in 1983. Further tests and analysis proved that the “lost” species was alive and well in a Delaware meadow.

Via a report in the Journal of Lost Species , Hecksher was able to identify Pyractomena similis by a distinct flash pattern, with an amber color and “long rhythmic flash”, which didn’t match other fireflies in the region. Hecksher searched meadows around Maryland and Delaware, finally finding success in the latter’s Brandywine Creek State Park.…