Finally tonight, for many, fireflies are part of the story of summer,

evoking memories of lazy hot evenings spent trying to catch them in glass jars.

Now we meet a man who's still trying to catch them, not with a jar, but with a camera.

In Amazonian folklore, the light of fireflies is a beacon of hope and guidance from the gods.

Japanese legend has it that they're symbols of love, war, and departed souls.

And for National Geographic Explorer and Firefly specialist Sri Ram Morally?

Coming from India, fireflies are symbolic of the night and the

jungles. Moraly's been fascinated by fireflies since the night years ago. He was searching for stars

near his hometown in southern India. I stumbled upon a forest with millions and millions of fireflies

synchronizing their flashes

across vast expanses of the forest. And there's been no looking back. The first time I saw

it, I almost felt like I was transported to another planet. Fireflies once shared Earth with

dinosaurs, but now their numbers are declining.

This summer, Murali came to the United States to document how fireflies are coping in big cities.

The fireflies in D.C. and New York are found in some of the most urban conditions, like in Battery Park in New York,

which is just a couple of blocks from Ball Street, and in the

National Mall in D.C. right in front of Lincoln Memorial. To me, how these fireflies have adapted

to live in such bright, harsh conditions really amazes me. And I wanted to tell a story about

these fireflies about how resilient they are.

There are more than 2,000 species. Eastern fireflies have proven to be adaptable to urban

environments, but many other species haven't fared as well. Their enemies include climate change,

pesticides, habitat loss, and light pollution.

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