My mother used to live around Knoxville. She told me of an annual event which I have never seen. Synchronous fireflies.

Apparently at a particular altitude in the Great Smokey Mountains between the end of May and first of June fireflies synchronize their flashes.

Fireflies are all male. They are trying to entice a female glow worm for a mating session.

I'm pretty sure that because fireflies are part of the insect kingdom, it goes terribly wrong for the little guys.

Spiders eat their mates as do praying mantises. Drones bees die horribly after mating with a queen by having their guts ripped out.

I wonder what happens to fireflies.

Image by Artie_Navarre

5 minute freewrite. Prompt: fireflies