(ECNS) -- With Chinese version of Valentine's Day, the Qixi Festival, fast approaching, online sales of fireflies have surged more than ten times as much as the same period last year, the Yangtze Evening Post reported.
The Qinghuan Volunteer Service Center, a Jiangsu-based environmental protection group, has found 37 vendors selling the bugs on Taobao, a popular online shopping site. More than 10 million of the bugs have sold, far outnumbering last year's figure of approximately 1 million.
Many of the vendors are promoting firefly packages specially designed for Qixi Festival, at the price of about five yuan per bug. A 20-bug package is being promoted as a display of "loving you", a 55-bug package means "I love you", a 99-bug package means "everlasting love", and a 199-bug package means "I love you till the seas dry up and the rocks decay".
Volunteers have found that only two out of the 30 firefies they ordered online moved freely, while the rest were on the verge of death.
"They cannot adapt to their new living environment," said one volunteer, Fang Jianbo.
As there is the risk of the bugs dying during shipment, some of the vendors are offering customers extra supplies, around 20 percent of the total number ordered.
According to Chinese laws and regulations, it is illegal to send live bugs by mail, Fang said.
Experts say most of the fireflies are wild-caught, and that 99 percent of the vendors who claim their bugs have been artificially bred are lying. Few people have mastered the technology, and artificial breeding of the bugs is very expensive.
Insect exhibitions have been behind the purchase.
More than 60 firefly exhibitions have been organized across the country so far this year, according to the volunteers.
Various scenic spots and businesses are also jumping on the bandwagon this year, which could threaten the bugs, the paper warns.
