Anjanette’s Chocolate Café & Truffle Shoppe is on the square in Gainesville across from the Cooke County Courthouse. Inside, on the wall, is a mural depicting historic downtown Gainesville. There are a classic silver candelabra and big leather chairs, and stacks of decorative gift boxes adorned with ribbons imprinted with the store’s tagline, “For the Love of Chocolate,” which sums things up nicely.

Running through the dusk with an empty jar, trying to catch a fleck of living light has long been a part of summer memories for children enchanted by the light show that goes on in the countryside at twilight. Called lightning bugs in the South, fireflies in the North, luciérnagas in Spanish, and mouches à feu in Cajun, the beetles of the lamprydae family are complex creatures worthy of investigation.