Smithsonian Magazine

In the dark of a June evening, standing in the black mud of a New Jersey bog, an hour’s drive from home, Christopher Heckscher was alert to any flicker of light. He is an explorer, though this wilderness lies in one of the most densely populated regions of the United States: the Northeast megalopolis. And now, as pale stars appeared from behind the clouds, he needed one more firefly.


Yellow-green fireflies blurr in motion in a Delaware wetland