2802: Fireflies

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Fireflies

Title text: I feel bad for Earth 2 and their shadowflies.

Explanation

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Fireflies are a variety of beetles that are able to emit flashes of light, a process known as bioluminescence. Megan explains that while this ability is not uncommon in ocean-dwelling species, it's pretty rare on land; presumably this is because sunlight doesn't penetrate very far under water, so there's evolutionary pressure to develop a process to generate one's own light. Land animals have much less need to generate their own light -- even at night there's light from the moon and stars, so nocturnal animals tend to have good eyesight or other enhanced sensory abilities (e.g. echolocation). It's thought that it originally served to ward off predators of the larvae, but adults coopted it as a mating signal

While Megan and Cueball are walking towards a field with fireflies, she points all this out and suggests that it was just a fluke that fireflies developed this ability. When they see the firefly display, the two of them agree that we're lucky to be on a planet where this happened.

The title text suggests that there's an alternate Earth that instead has "shadowflies", which are presumably like fireflies but instead create shadows instead of light, and that this isn't as nice for the people there.

Transcript

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Cueball: So where is this spot?

Megan: It's just up ahead.

Megan: You know,

Megan: fireflies didn't have to exist.

Megan: The ocean has lots of bioluminescence, but it's less common on land.

Megan: Creatures that glow are pretty rare here.

Megan: So it's not some niche whose exploitation was inevitable.

Megan: If insects hadn't stumbled on their fatty acid enzyme trick, Earth just wouldn't have fireflies.

Megan: Ooh, look!

Megan: They're starting!

Cueball: I'm glad we got a planet that has these.

Megan: Yeah, it's a good one.

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Discussion

I can't remember another XKCD which has gray-scale figures. -- Dtgriscom (talk) 01:46, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

I think 2386: Ten Years also had gray-scale figures, but just for one panel. --nixstyx (talk) 02:37, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

Yup: https://xkcd.com/2386/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/02/fireflies-possible-extinction-across-us/7795410001/ very sad. 172.69.22.175 02:20, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

another suggestion for “shadow flies”: in certain interpretations of quantum physics entities in other possible worlds are referred to as “shadow ___” (e.g. “shadow photons”).172.71.142.106 04:23, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

I expect a visitor flood to [1]. ~ Megan ^she/_her ^talk/_contribs 07:24, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

When I saw this, especially the last panel which is reminiscent of the night sky scene in https://xkcd.com/2386/, I thought it was Randall and his wife.  So how and when do we know when we are seeing Cueball and Megan and not Randall and Mrs. Randall?  Or are Megan and Cueball their in-universe stand-ins? RAGBRAIvet (talk) 00:01, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

Wow. I can't remember the last time Randall shared a "romance" comic. Shamino (talk) 23:42, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

Maybe Earth 2 doesn't really have any darkness, in which case their shadowflies might be equally enchanting to them as fireflies are to us. 172.71.242.63 08:27, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

Starving

I’d love to understand what’s going on with the “starving” comment. Are fireflies starving themselves to get that enzyme to work? Ptdecker (talk) 08:04, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

I can't currently see "starving" anywhere. (Old edit?) Unless you misread "They're starting"..? 141.101.99.115

What's the "fatty acid enzyme trick" that Megan mentions? --NeatNit (talk) 11:46, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_luciferin

Ecology

Fireflies are disappearing on our planet. So one read I'm having of this comic is the ecological impact we, humans are having on the planet and other species.

~ dmathieu

Darkbulbs

In The Best of the Journal of Irreproducible Results (page 180) there's an article "Definition of a Darkbulb" by James L. DeLucas, which would be relevant to the idea that "shadowflies" might generate darkness in their surroundings beyond merely absorbing incident light. But I can't find a linkable copy of the article. BunsenH (talk) 15:55, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

http://www.textfiles.com/bbs/KEELYNET/HUMOR/darkbulb.asc

ProphetZarquon (talk) 16:51, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

I did find that one. But it's a poor reproduction of the original, with ADDED CAPITALIZATIONS of words that aren't even emphasized in the original, and lacking the accompanying illustrations. And the ".asc" filetype isn't ideal either; in these decadent days, it's not recognized as an (ASCII) text file by my Windows box. BunsenH (talk) 02:13, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

wow this came out the Day I saw fireflies in a long while GetPunnedOn (talk) 22:57, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

Earth 2

I remember there was a TV series by the name Earth 2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_2_(TV_series) ), not sure if this is of relevance here but I immediately thought of it when I read the title text. It's too long for me to remember if there where any shadowflies occurring, but perhaps somebody has better knowledge than I do

Shadows

Ah, so Earth 2's infested by the Vashta Nerada? That would certainly constitute grounds for feeling sorry for them. Whoop whoop pull up (talk) 11:18, 10 November 2023 (UTC)