Carrying a Torch Students continue credible quest to have firefly named state insect BY RICHARD G. BIEVER ow far would you chase a the Indiana Statehouse, but still no “And fireflies firefly? luck. Yet, Kayla and her classmates like golden seeds H In the cool of the evening insist the chase for the elusive state this time of year, when these little bio- insect will continue on with a new are sown luminescent beetles emerge and begin fervor. They hope a firefly fever will about the night.” beckoning both their mates and us sweep the state and Hoosiers statewide — JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY, with their tiny flashing greenish gold will support their efforts. They are pin- HOOSIER POET tail light-beacons, it’s easy to fall under ning their hopes on January’s General their magical swirling spell. Assembly to make sure Indiana daw- But would your pursuit go so far as dles no more in selecting a state insect. the one Kayla Xu, her teacher, class and To paraphrase an old proverb: It’s school in West Lafayette have been on? not so much the destination of seeing Kayla’s curiosity and quest to know the firefly made the state insect as why Indiana had no official “state much as it is the lessons these students insect” — and how it could capture one have learned. “The whole experience — soon took her entire second grade is a journey,” said Maggie Samudio, BACKGROUND PHOTO: Like swirling stars collected from the class at Cumberland Elementary cyber- Kayla’s second grade teacher. night sky, countless fireflies flicker tripping to nearby Purdue University. across a field near a treeline. Entomologists there passed the torch The journey begins Lightning bugs, as they are also they’d been carrying for the firefly to with a question or two called, are perhaps the most “people the kids. The chase to make the firefly Not far into the fall semester of 2014, pleasing” insect on earth: never a pest; always fascinating. The rural the official state insect — with Purdue Samudio’s class was learning about the summer childhood ritual of collecting entomologists along for support — was 50 states. Kayla had taken one of the them in Ball jars at nightfall connects now on. books about states home to read more generations together like no other Next, the pursuit wound its way about all of them. Two days later, she insect or animal. through history and from West came up to Samudio’s desk and told INSET ART: West Lafayette second Lafayette down the not-so-far-away her teacher, “We have a problem.” grader Yangchen Yan adorned the cover of her jar-shaped booklet of firefly banks of the Wabash (Indiana’s official Kayla noticed some states had state facts with these two fireflies. Yangchen “state song” and official “state river,” by musical instruments. “They had a state is a student in Maggie Samudio’s second the way) to New Harmony. this, and a state that,” Samudio said. grade class at Cumberland Elementary. Soon, state lawmakers joined in. Samudio’s students for the past two years They ran the firefly up the flagpole at PLEASE TURN TO NEXT PAGE have been researching fireflies and lobbying the state Legislature to have the bioluminescent beetle adopted as the state insect. BACKGROUND PHOTO BY CLINT SPENCER/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGes PLUS 14 electric consumer • June 2016 • ElectricConsumer.org ElectricConsumer.org • June 2016 • electric consumer 15 CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE like they just want to be your friend.” State Rep. Sheila Klinker holds up a And Vivi noted, “They can have an firefly finger puppet before the West “But she noticed the insects and said, When it comes to an insect, effect on anyone, any age.” Lafayette city council last month while ‘Indiana doesn’t have one. Why don’t speaking in support of students from She said people coming to Indiana draws a ‘blaaaaank’ we have one? How can we get one?’ the city’s Cumberland Elementary. The Indiana from where they don’t have council was considering a resolution And that’s how it all started.” Indiana has a state flower and tree, noted lightning bugs can be amazed seeing endorsing the students’ efforts to A firm believer in the “teachable West Lafayette third grader Kayla Xu. We even them for the first time. “It would be a have the Say Firefly adopted as the moment,” Samudio promised Kayla have a state pie and state gun. But when it like a sky of stars …” Indiana state insect and also making she’d do some checking. the firefly the official insect of West “… Golden seeds sown about the comes to a state insect, she says Indiana draws Indeed, 47 states have a des- Lafayette. Klinker, whose District night,” added Kayla, quoting Hoosier 27 includes Lafayette and portions a long “blaaaaaaank.” ignated state insect. Some have poet James Whitcomb Riley. of West Lafayette, cosponsored the Kayla pointed out Indiana is one of only more than one. Indiana, Iowa and Emma said that everyone in the students’ bill in the Indiana General Michigan are the entomophobes. three states (along with Iowa and Michigan) class was on board with the choice. Assembly in January. It failed to pass “We don’t want to be the 50th in out of the natural resources committee. that has no state insect. In fact, compared “I think we all really admired the fire- getting an insect,” added Kayla, who Undeterred, the students and their to other states, Indiana has few “official” fly when we found out about it,” she firefly supporters in the Statehouse now just finished third grade in late said. “Our teacher motivated us, and are mounting another attempt for the symbols — a state trait for much of its 200 May. “We’d stand out if we don’t so we got to writing the letters and 2017 General Assembly — and are years. For many years, for example, Indiana have a state insect. It would be like just trying to make a difference.” hoping to gain statewide support from was the only state without a flag. — blaaaaank.” schools, city governments and other Indiana does have a dozen official state Doing some quick Googling, Why a ‘state insect’? organizations and individuals. Looking on, from right, are Cumberland third Samudio learned that Tom Turpin emblems, as well as other designated official At the end of another spring semester graders Vivi Agnew, Kayla Xu and and unofficial items. The majority of the and other entomologists at Purdue last month, Tom Turpin reached into Emma Williams, and West Lafayette University had suggested Indiana a desk drawer in his “bug-infested” Mayor John R. Dennis. The council symbols are officially recognized and created adopt the firefly as the state insect office at Purdue and pulled out a tri- unanimously passed the resolution. PHOTOS BY RICHARD G. BIEVER by an act of the Indiana General Assembly and in the 1990s. More specifically, their fold brochure, slightly discolored, signed into law by the governor. These include: firefly of choice was Pyractomena from 20 years ago. “Support a state k Seal: A pioneer chopping a tree on the edge angulata, commonly called Say’s insect for Indiana,” the cover said, Proposed insect named for famed New Harmony naturalist of a clearing as a bison flees. It was the state’s Firefly. This particular firefly was “The firefly.” It was one the promo- first symbol, adopted in 1816 (originally it was named after the famed naturalist tional materials they used. Thomas Say is the namesake for the “Say’s Firefly” It’s been said he transformed the study of the symbol of the Indiana Territory in 1801). Thomas Say, who discovered the spe- “We were always looking for ways (Pyractomena angulata), the variety of firefly that American natural history from the pastime of k Song: “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far cies while researching insects near to keep entomology and insects in has been proposed as the Indiana state insect. “science oriented gentlemen, into a legitimate Away” by Paul Dresser. Adopted in 1913, it was his home in New Harmony in the the public view,” said Turpin, who Say is known as the “father of American scientific field.” His publications made European the state’s second symbol. 1820s (please see sidebar at right). writes a monthly column called “On entomology.” Born in Philadelphia in 1787, he scientists take note that the young United k Flag: The torch represents liberty and enlight- “If it was good enough for Purdue Six Legs” for Purdue’s Extension com- was a self-taught naturalist, and one of the first States had serious scientific research being done enment. The outer circle of 13 stars represents and Tom Turpin,” said Samudio in munications service and has come American-born naturalists to gain renown. At age by native-born Americans. the original 13 states. The stars in the lower going with the firefly, too, “it’s good up with such events as the Bug Bowl 25, he became a charter member of the Academy of The epitaph on Say’s grave in New Harmony semi circle stand for the five states admitted enough for anybody and everybody.” and the State Fair’s cockroach races. Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. captures his passion for the natural world: PORTRAIT OF THOMAS SAY, 1818, before Indiana. The star directly above the torch “I particularly thought the firefly “The idea here was that if you have BY CHARLES WILLSON PEALE In January 1826, Say arrived with William “Votary of nature even from a child, symbolizes Indiana. Adopted in 1917 after the was really good because I read this a state symbol, in this case a state Born: June 27, 1787, Maclure and other scientists and educators He sought her presence in the trackless wild; centennial design competition won by Paul book, and it says fireflies are one of insect, then this becomes something Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.