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North Carolina has over 30 firefly species, but their distribution and conservation status are not fully understood.

Peak firefly activity in North Carolina is from late May to early July.

Citizens can help firefly conservation by reducing outdoor lighting, avoiding pesticides, and creating natural habitats in their yards.

Bobby Franklin remembers growing up outside Philadelphia and seeing fireflies, or lightning bugs as he calls them, all over the place, especially in the Pocono Mountains north of the City of Brotherly Love.

But in the three years since he's moved to Wilmington, he can't remember seeing any.

"Not one now that I think about it," Franklin said as he walked New Hanover County's Ogden Park on a muggy late May morning. "I really don't remember seein

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