B5
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 2019
Endangered list
sought for rare fi refl y
By RANDALL CHASE
Associated Press
B
ETHANY BEACH, Del. —
Peering through the dark-
ness under the faint light of a
peach-colored moon, wildlife biologist
Jason Davis spots a telltale green fl ash
in the bushes.
Quick as a fl ash himself, Davis arcs
a long-handled mesh net through the
humid coastal air, ensnaring his tiny
target.
Ignoring the mosquitoes, Davis
heads to the open bed of his pickup
truck, opens up a notebook-size metal
testing kit and begins examining his
fi nd. Two minutes later, he makes his
pronouncement.
“That is what I am calling bethanien-
sis,” he declares.
“Photuris bethaniensis,” aka the
Bethany Beach Firefl y, was fi rst iden-
tifi ed in the 1950s and has been found
only in a sliver of southern Delaware
coastland. Now environmental groups
are shining a beacon on the luminescent
beetle, whose unique habitat is threat-
ened by coastal development, sea level
rise, invasive plants and insecticides.
The Center for Biological Diversity
and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate
Conservation, both based in Oregon,
are pushing for the federal Endangered
Species list to include its fi rst fi refl y.
Their petition to the U.S. Depart-
ment of Interior says the Bethany Beach
Firefl y “is at immediate risk of extinc-
tion” from the “imminent destruction”
of much of its habitat, noting plans to
build expensive beach homes in one of
the largest of the rare freshwater swales
where the fi refl y has been found. The
swales are shallow depressions tucked
among sand dunes and fed by under-
ground aquifers and rain water.
The Bethany Beach Firefl y is already
on Delaware’s endangered species list,
but that only it makes it illegal to trans-
port, possess or sell them. The state has
been unable to intervene in the devel-
opment project because, unlike other
states, Delaware doesn’t regulate most
freshwater wetlands, which account for
about 75% of all wetlands in Delaware.
State environmental secretary Shawn
Garvin suggests that should change.
“This is just an example of why the
state would like to have some ability
to engage in these types of projects in
nontidal wetlands,” Garvin said.
Meanwhile, to avoid having to
obtain a federal permit from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers to dredge or
fi ll in the wetland, the developer of the
Christopher M. Heckscher
A rare Bethany Beach Firefl y in Dover, Del.
AP Photo/Gary Emeigh
An aerial photo in Bethany Beach, Del., shows a wooden road built on pilings in one of
the freshwater wetlands in coastal Delaware where the Bethany Beach Firefl y, which
some environmentalists want added to the federal Endangered Species List, has been
previously found.
‘NO ONE KNEW IF IT WAS STILL AROUND OR
HOW COMMON IT WAS AT ALL, PRETTY MUCH
BECAUSE NO ONE HAD BEEN LOOKING FOR IT.’
Christopher Heckscher | environmental scientist who
‘rediscovered’ the Bethany Beach Firefl y in the late 1990s
Breakwater Beach project has built an
elaborate elevated wooden cul-de-sac
on pilings in anticipation of building
the homes, also perched on pilings.
“That fi refl y was at the top of my list
to do a petition for fi refl ies,” said Tara
Cornelisse, a scientist with the Cen-
ter for Biological Diversity. “But when
we were certain about the development
going on in one of its habitats, that’s
when we elevated it to an emergency
listing.”
Immediate federal protection is
unlikely, and the developer is moving
forward with construction. A petitioner
can request an emergency listing, but
federal law does not provide for a sep-
arate emergency process. Guidelines
call for a decision within 90 days on
whether a yearlong review is merited to
determine whether action is warranted.
Actually getting listed can take much
longer still: “I think the average is 12
years,” Cornelisse said.
The petition says the Breakwater
Beach development is destroying one
of only seven freshwater swales where
the fi refl y was previously found.
“They were superabundant in that
one spot,” said Christopher Heckscher,
an environmental scientist at Delaware
State University who “rediscovered”
the Bethany Beach Firefl y in the late
1990s.
A lawyer for the developer ques-
tioned the petition’s timing and said it
relies on limited data from two decades
ago.
“Breakcap LLC has no reason to
believe that any fi refl ies live in or along
the interdunal swale within Breakwater
Beach, let alone that Breakwater Beach
is critical habitat for any species,”
attorney Francis X. Gorman wrote in
an email.
“It is curious that they are now —
only after Breakcap LLC has obtained
all required legal approvals to con-
struct Breakwater Beach — seeking to
have the Bethany Beach fi refl y listed
as a federally-endangered species, not-
withstanding the admitted decadeslong
understanding of the fi refl y’s alleged
limited range,” Gorman added.
Davis, a biologist with Delaware’s
environmental department, began a
survey in late June. He said his team
caught and released about a dozen
Bethany Beach fi refl ies at four of the
fi rst 20-odd sites they checked.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll hope-
fully fi nd some more,” said Davis, who
hopes to survey at least 40 freshwa-
ter swales. He’s been limited to state
coastal parks, because no private prop-
erty owner has given him permission to
survey their land.
“Photuris bethaniensis” wasn’t con-
sidered a separate species until Frank
Alexander McDermott, a DuPont
chemist with a lifelong fascination with
fi refl ies, published his fi ndings in the
Smithsonian Institution’s “Proceedings
of the United States National Museum”
in 1953.
He described a beetle with a distinct
“double greenish fl ash” he fi rst spotted
at the north end of Bethany Beach in
1949. It took him several more years
to capture enough specimens to make
a scientifi c determination. Few paid
much attention to the fi refl y thereafter,
until Heckscher began a three-year sur-
vey in 1998.
“No one knew if it was still around
or how common it was at all, pretty
much because no one had been looking
for it,” said Heckscher, who found the
fi refl y at seven of 18 swales he visited.
Davis said he had planned his survey
before the federal petition was fi led.
Establishing that the fi refl y still
exists is “very important,” he said. “I
feel like the more we learn, the more
questions we have.”
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