Oh, hey, it's that key that's under the mat that somehow nobody finds and uses to steal all your stuff.

Alleyward back and back. I'm just plain old home after a few weeks away getting hitched, hanging out with family in Montana,

being off my phone, eating too many fried cheese curds. I swam in a lake. I laughed with my aunties, and I was a wife for the first time in my life.

But I'm back. We have fireflies for you. Or do we have lightning bugs? We're gonna get into it.

So these glowing friends, they're neither flies nor true bugs. Rather beetles in the family lamp a radye.

But as you will soon learn this episode's name comes at an experts behest.

So she is a professor of biology at Tufts University in Boston. She did a TED talk on these beloved little critters.

She's the author of the information pack and entertaining book Silence Barks.

The wondrous world of fireflies. You may know her on Twitter under the handle Silence Barks.

And I was introduced to her through Eric Eaton, who was our WASP champion a few episodes back.

And I jumped at the chance to talk to her, crammed it in the schedule a day or two before my wedding earlier this month.

And we will get to know her work. And just a sec was super quick.

Thank you to everyone at patreon.com slash allergies for making this show possible.

For the four years we've been around and first submitting great questions every week.

Thank you to everyone for keeping allergies in the number two spot on Apple Podcast Science

with your ratings and reviews. And I just read all that you left.

And you know how to make a dad word feel cool.

Each week I pick a fresh one and thanks Megan Sir for writing the review.

For the first time since I was a kid I am amazed by science.

Allegis unlocks life's mysteries and enables you to see all of its beauties.

So happy to be your rusty key for that Megan.

And thank you to everyone whose reviews I creepily read literally all of them.

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