As we cannot often see what is occurring, the night is a quiet period for the senses and much of observable nature. But a simple light can illuminate and even create extreme circumstances. Last evening as my wife and I were heading for bed, the motion detector on the second floor eave clicked on a pair of security lights. When this happens you see little, as a cat or other nocturnal creature trips the circuit and has already scurried away.
A light on a summer evening typically attracts a few nondescript moths, mosquitoes and a big June bug or two. These evening denizens do little save hang onto the screen with their limbs, seemingly seeking egress. But tonight’s gathering is different. Initially a few tiny whitish bugs hover around the light. But within 30 seconds they metamorphose into a swarm of thousands attending a rave. They are mad like crazy teens dancing with abandon and without purpose in a composite pattern reminiscent of a white-on-black Jackson Pollock painting. The light reflects off their bodies creating a continuous record of their dance steps.
Each bug leaves a light trail as it spirals between the lights somehow avoiding collision with its peers as they avoid each other. Perspective and distance changes the pattern as would a view of a Master’s painting. Up close the details and shape of each little bug and associated movement can be seen; far away, a gyrating pattern of spherical forms and intensities moves between the two lights.
A few are tired, resting on the screen and find a few holes that should have been patched. I quickly shut the window trapping my iridescent little friends between the screen and glass, now unable to rejoin their frenzied companions.
We try an experiment and turn off the light for a minute and then back on. Just like before, the adolescents regroup in the light and reengage in their dance. But what is this dance? Is is some type of mating behavior? Is it because they have just hatched and never seen light before? Are these the excessive bugs out for a good time now that many of our local bats have died off and are no longer consuming thousands of insects every night? Why are they here?
We can’t answer these questions so we shut off the light and head for bed leaving the dancers to find another venue to regroup, replay, redance.
