(Photo : Chinese Valentine's Day)

When the Chinese Valentine's Day is coming, a unique present for this holiday emerges in the market, known as "creative romantic gift", the firefly. The fireflies can live only three to five days, and they are sold about 3~5 Yuan each. The entomologist points out that these fireflies probably are caught in the wildlife, since it costs a lot to cultivate them.

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The journalist searched "firefly" on the Taobao, and more than two hundred options showed up with advertisement saying that "Fly with Romance in this Chinese Valentine's Day" "Best Way to Propose Marriage", etc. A few of the top selling stores would have about a hundred orders every day. A customer service told the journalist that the orders are getting more when the date is coming closer. Due to the special characteristics of the product, bus transportation is recommended to keep them survive longer. To ensure the arrival is on time and the higher survival rate, people who want the fireflies should order as soon as possible. The customer service continued, if some of the fireflies die during the transportation, the seller would send them a few of them to make up their loss. Most of the customers are from the wedding planning companies and the lovers, a few of them are the parents who purchase the firefly for their children. A seller from Jiangxi says, the fireflies from his store are all cultivated and the mature firefly can live five days, and up to ten days in the suitable environment. Some sellers even say they can teach the customers how to cultivate the fireflies in their fish tank.

We ask where these fireflies come from, and many of the stores claim that they are the so-call specialist teams. One store owner says he has his cultivation place and has people to catch in the wild at the same time. However, the entomologist provides his opinion, saying that the cultivation environment requires a good control of many factors, such as light, temperature and humid, contributing a high budget 10 Yuan each on the average; while the budget for catching them in the wild is much lower. What they do will bring harm to the local ecological balance of the wild and the city without doubt. Environmentalist should make good use of the social media like Weibo to appeal people stop purchasing the fireflies upon the name of romance. Nothing is related to romance except harms to the nature.