Brightness of Fire Flys

Watching Fire Flys in my back yard last night..(the insect)
From a distance of about 65 feet, I was seeing a group sort of buzzing around and hanging in one area. I noticed that some were noticeable more bright than others. This link fireflys tells me that they have different signals. But I was really wondering, how do you rate the brightness of a firefly?
Mark's Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers (10th Edition) page 12-99 defines "candela, cd (formerly candle) is the unit of luminous intensity of a light source. One candela is defined as the luminous intensity in a given direction, of a source that emits monochromatic radiation of a frequency 540 x 10(12)HZ (approx. 55 nm) and of which the radiant intensity in that direction 1/683 W per steridan (W/sr)." It goes on to show in table 12.5.1 that a single candle flame is rated at 6.45 cd/in2.

So, at 65 feet, I would say these little bugs were much brighter than a candle flame!! I would even go on to say that some of them looked like a flash from a Mag Solitare or even a cheaper LED keychain light!

Has anyone else done any studies on this? Any documented research?

Ain't nature cool? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Shouldn't a candle put out one candela, not 6.45? I mean that is like a horse being rated at 6.45 horsepower.

The fireflies I have seen are amazing, but they don't seem to be nearly as illuminating as a candle flame.

Interesting topic. The brightness of a single firefly is 1/40th candlepower. Males flash every 5 seconds or so, females every 2 seconds.

WOW! A girl? For real? Does Sasha allow other women here?

Howdy and welcome, widow. Texas certainly is well represented on the CPF. What brings you to our forum and what lights up your life? Now don't be a stranger just because most of us are. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

Well I don't want to hijack capnal's thread, but...

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jayflash said:
WOW! A girl? For real? Does Sasha allow other women here?

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A girl? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif Yes, last time I checked. I'm actually here because a friend referred me and thought I might enjoy this forum. I enjoy some modern lights (love my Surefire E1) but generally prefer vintage and antique lights.

That's courteous of you, f_w, to avoid hijacking this thread, but I started it, so you're off the hook. We often tolerate threads going WAY off track. The CPF has wonderful, patient, helpful, and very tolerant members, so the occasional derailment doesn't seem to upset anyone. See you in another thread. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif

At my astronomy club's dark sky viewing site, we have a bunch of fireflies this time of the year and they are the brightest ones that I have ever seen. They emit a long duration flash (2 to 3 seconds) and when they flash while flying 2 feet above the ground, you can actually see the ground light up a bit! A lot of brightness for a living creature so small!

They remind me of my keylight just as bright.

Some of those female fireflies can be lethal to a male of a different species. The female of one species can imitate the signal of another species to lure an unfortunate male into becoming her dinner.
http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9709/01/firefly.ap/