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Students rally to name the firefly Indiana’s state insect

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) – Students at a West Lafayette elementary school are rallying state legislators to name the firefly as Indiana’s official state insect.

Maggie Samudio’s class of second-graders at Cumberland Elementary School were learning about the 50 states, when one of her students asked why Indiana didn’t have an official state insect. This prompted the class to come up with a plan to change that.

The class started writing postcards to State Sen. Ron Alting and State Reps. Sheila Klinker and Randy Truitt.

The effort to make the firefly the state insect was attempted in the ’90s, but failed because one state senator refused to hear the bill.

Cumberland student Kayla Xu hopes the attempt will be successful this time.

“One senator just said no,” Xu explained. “He wouldn’t say yes to it. Good thing now that he’s not a senator because if he was still, I guess, Indiana wouldn’t have one.”

A small rally was held Wednesday morning with Purdue Entomology Professor Tom Turpin, who enlightened listeners about fireflies.

Turpin said he applauds the students’ efforts.