Have you actually *seen* a lightning bug anytime recently? I haven’t!
They were very common in Kentucky. Little winkers would start in shortly before dusk and keep it up for a couple of hours, then they would go nest wherever lightning bugs nest. The perennial kids’ project of catching hundreds in a bottle (with or without ventilation holes) never was very satisfying because their glow plugs were just about pooped out when the other lightning bugs went to bed.
Light’nin bugs are up here in Missouri. I think it is because of the moisture. I remember chasing the bugs when I was a kid in Texas but believe that Texas has gotten wayyy too dry to have many of them. They are all over the place here.