Buscando Luciérnagas: findings on Mexican fireflies from an 8-year virtual citizen science project

Citizen science for monitoring biodiversity

People who volunteer to participate in some part of the process related to science projects are considered to be community or citizen scientists (CSc). They can play an important role in the growth of scientific knowledge given that their participation provides big data observations across time and space (Gardiner & Roy, 2022). In entomology-focused programs, citizen scientists have made new discoveries, participated in conservation efforts, and contributed to species monitoring (Gardiner & Roy, 2022). These involvements can help to gather the data needed to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to biodiversity protection and restoration, sustainable resource use, capacity building and multi stakeholder partnerships, zero hunger and education; bee-focused projects have been particularly illustrative in this sense (Koffler et al., 2021).

Virtual Citizen Science (VCS) initiatives can serve as a scientific instrument, yield reliable and relevant scientific data, and may also offer a platform to promote broader educational outcomes (Wald, Longo & Dobell, 2016). Recently, the use of social media has facilitated data collection from more volunteers, even in remote places (Gardiner & Roy, 2022). One of the main challenges of citizen science projects is to maintain involvement and collaboration over long periods (Liberatore et al., 2018; Oliveira et al., 2021) making it difficult to train participants for highly standardized data collection. This may pose a tradeoff between making the project accessible versus having high quality data (Bonney et al., 2014; Irwin, 2018). However, the use of social media for citizen science allows regular multi-way communication with the citizen science community, which can aid in retention of volunteers.

According to a review by Gardiner & Roy (2022) there are currently many citizen science projects focused on arthropods that have published their experiences. These have mainly been from the USA and UK, where most of the projects are focused on butterflies (Lepidoptera) and bees (Hymenoptera), followed by beetles (Coleoptera). In a recent article Lewis et al. (2024) compiled a list of 21 citizen science projects focused on fireflies around the world and recognize several important inputs from them such as refining the firefly checklist for several countries, the monitoring of an invasive species, the monitoring of rare species, among others.

Charismatic species

Fireflies are charismatic and conspicuous animals that often evoke childhood memories; this makes the experience of firefly watching joyful and even transformative (Lewis et al., 2021; Fakruhayat & Rashid, 2023). Human-nature experiences, like firefly spotting, can have a strong positive impact on human wellbeing and conservation attitudes (Fakruhayat & Rashid, 2023; Soga & Gaston, 2016), and citizen science projects can help promote transformative interactions with nature (Goldin & Suransky, 2023).

Fireflies are sensitive to changes in their environment and are often used as an indicator species to monitor the health of ecosystems (Chen et al., 2021; Wang, Cao & Wang, 2022). Fireflies require a specific type of habitat to thrive, and their presence or absence can provide important information about the quality of the environment (Kazama et al., 2007). In Mexico, fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) used to be common and were part of everyday life, even in cities. However, since they are vulnerable to land-use changes and urbanization, there is a decline in their populations and diversity (Lewis et al., 2020; Pérez-Hernández et al., 2023). Mexican firefly diversity is quite large, 280 species are currently recognized (Pérez-Hernández, Zaragoza-Caballero & Romo-Galicia, 2022; Zaragoza-Caballero et al., 2023) from a total of 2,200 global firefly diversity (Lewis et al., 2024), and new species continue to be discovered (Gutiérrez-Carranza & Zaragoza-Caballero, 2024). Most studies from Mexican fireflies concentrate on taxonomical and morphological aspects of the group while ecological and behavioral investigations have been scarce, therefore there is a need to improve our general knowledge about the group in the country.

To evaluate whether this general perception of firefly decline has some support in different parts of Mexico, we launched a citizen science project called “Buscando luciérnagas” (Searching for fireflies) to retrieve information about this group of charismatic Coleoptera from the general public. The specific objectives of this initiative were: (1) to understand the general perception of firefly populations in different parts of Mexico, (2) to collect more general information on firefly habitats (e.g., vegetation type), whether it was near a water source, and if it was in the countryside or in a city, and (3) to engage and educate the public. Buscando Luciernagas was established with a participatory and adaptive approach to data collection, which made VCS an interesting option to address a larger and more diverse audience in a wider territory. In 2021, Mexico had 88.6 million internet users (75.6% of its population). Of all the internet users, 71.5% used the web to access social media, mainly Facebook, with 96.8% of users reporting having an active account; for 92% of users, their main source of internet connection was through mobile phones (IFT, 2016; INEGI, 2015). A study done by the Pew Research Center showed that users of mobile connectivity in emerging economies indicated a positive feeling toward social media’s societal effects. In Mexico specifically, 67% said the increasing use of the internet had had a good influence on education (Pew Research Center, 2019).

Social media as a citizen science platform

For the period in which the project was established (from 2015 to 2022), Facebook was judged to be the best option to approach future Mexican citizen scientists, as it was a tool they already had, knew, and used in a daily manner, with positive social acceptance. In June 2015, a Facebook page called Buscando Luciernagas was created, with the following hashtag in every post #veobrillar (“I see them shining”). The account shared information about firefly function, morphology, diversity, conservation status, ways to find them, and general identification. With the page running and followers adding up, we encouraged them to go outside at night and search for fireflies near them, which resulted in the first reports. Under an adaptive approach, changing strategies is seen as a strength rather than a methodological inconsistency. Therefore, we once again asked participants to go outside and report the following information on any fireflies they sighted: 1. Where were they seen? 2. How many were there? 3. Were they near water? 4. Share location (in general terms—not GPS coordinates for security reasons).

From 2021 we designed and launched a web application (https://anaeme.shinyapps.io/BuscandoLuciernagas/) with an interactive map and a questionnaire where people were able to record the location of the sighting, date, approximate abundance, vegetation type, presence of water, and light color. Therefore, in 2021 and 2022 we gathered additional data through the new app.

Outreach, project promotion and data analysis

From 2015 to 2022, radio interviews, scientific dissemination articles, participation in conferences, and other outreach strategies were used to promote awareness of firefly conservation and increase web traffic on the social media page.

To analyze the relationship between the number of reports and habitat characteristics (water presence, habitat type) we performed Chi2 tests. All analysis and figures were performed in R version 4.2.3 (R Development Core Team, 2017). To analyze whether the firefly sightings originated from rural or urban areas, we used the World Urban Areas shapefile provided by Patterson & Kelso (2012). We then counted the number of sightings that fell within urban polygons.

Participant consent and disclosures

People who participated in our citizen science project knew we were gathering data about their firefly sightings to perform the survey. At the Facebook page in the project information section we have an explicit statement saying “The purpose of this project is to monitor fireflies through citizen science. It arises from the Laboratory of Biotic Interactions in Altered Habitats, part of the Institute of Ecosystems and Sustainability Research (IIES), UNAM, Campus Morelia. The data generated by this project will be public, and the identity of the participating individuals will be kept confidential”.

Citizen science projects in the advancement of knowledge

While with this initiative we were able to identify the presence of fireflies at a Family level, we cannot differentiate between species, therefore there is a need for detailed ecological investigations that help to elucidate Mexican firefly species distribution and life history (Bonney et al., 2009). In order to do so through CS projects, we will need to generate detailed information about their flashing patterns and communicate it to the public, as has been done in other regions (Lloyd, 1966; Faust, 2017). Another possibility to gather more specific and reliable data on Mexican fireflies would be to combine virtual citizen science projects with on-field citizen science initiatives. For example, we could select some localities with reported high incidence or where fireflies are commonly observed from our database and train a team of community science volunteers to perform field surveys throughout the year. This strategy has been successful in Hong Kong (Yiu, 2023), England (Gardiner & Didham, 2020), and Japan (Takeda et al., 2007) where citizen scientists gather at specific dates and follow sampling protocols established by academics that can cover large areas and provide more specific and detailed information.

There are two opposing challenges related to Citizen Science. On the one hand, there is a call to make data collection procedures more rigorous to enhance credibility. On the other hand, there is a need to make them accessible and easy for the public to participate. In that sense, although our study was unable to discern between firefly species due to the lack of easily distinguishable characteristics accessible to the general public, the bioluminescent sparks serve to characterize the presence of a firefly from the Lampyridae family, enabling us to generate maps with presence data at this broad taxonomic level. One concern is that the CSc reports may include bioluminescent beetles from the Elateridae family that occur in the study area. Although we cannot rule out the possibility that some reports correspond to this group, we provided information on our Facebook page to help distinguish Elateridae from Lampyridae, and responded to some questions related that were asked on the page. Also, in the radio interviews we talked about the differences between fireflies and other bioluminescent animals. Since fireflies are generally more abundant than bioluminescent click beetles, we are confident that most of our reports are indeed Lampyridae.

Throughout the course of our study, we were able to witness the involvement and excitement of many citizen scientists that participated in our survey. We found an array of experiences, ranging from people that had never seen them in the cities, to people that realized they were not as common as when they were kids. Also, people wanted to know more about bioluminescence and to be involved with their conservation. It was evident to us that people who got involved in this type of project strengthened their link with nature, as other authors have found (Williams et al., 2021). With our data, we were able to identify a gradient of involvement among citizen scientists, since a few individuals provided many of our sightings (31%), while most were casual participants, reporting only once or twice during the study period. Therefore, most involvement with our project was casual rather than long-lasting. To improve the relationship between citizen science projects and the general public, we suggest incorporating periodic activities where people can feel that they are part of a community and that their involvement contributes to scientific advancement. This paper will be shared on the Buscando luciernagas Facebook page to disseminate the results and emphasize this community effort.

One important aspect of CSc is that once people get more concerned with nature by participating in these projects, they increase their entomological knowledge and modify their everyday practices, such as gardening, be environmentally friendly, reducing pesticide application and the frequency of mowing (Fontaine, Fontaine & Prévot, 2021). We were also able to witness this, as many participants who participated returned the following year to upload their new sightings. Also, people continuously ask about environmental measures to take in their communities to improve conditions for fireflies. For example, a woman requested “we want to know which plants we can sow in our environment to attract them, last year there were many but not this one.” Another citizen asked “what can I do for their preservation?”

An interesting finding was that several people that were interested in our social media campaign reached out to us to share that they used to see fireflies in their communities/ environments in the past but were not able to see them any longer. One citizen, for example, said “it has been a long time since I have seen any” and they were interested to know if there were specific conservation/ sanctuary areas where they could go. This was a repeated request, highlighting the fact that people are interested in nature contemplation.

Our approach to gathering Mexican firefly data through a virtual citizen science project not only helped us gain a general understanding of the distribution of these coleopterans in certain regions but was also particularly successful in engaging the public to observe the insects and reflect on their current conservation status. This survey can be helpful to define areas to further sampling as mentioned above and to explore in more detail the correlations we found. We recommend that future virtual citizen science projects aiming to get more specific data should include some form of virtual training, such as webinars or online tutorials, to increase the level of confidence in the data collected. Since a couple of years, there had been more events related with the International Firefly Day in the city of Morelia, where the project started, and people are engaging with them at the point in which entrances are usually sold out, which demonstrates that this kind of citizen science projects can lead people to engage with nature.