Lightning bugs

Last night Daddy and Molly went out to catch fireflies. Molly's idea was that they would put the fireflies in a jar and then use their light to read stories. They went out in the yard equipped with a long green bug catching net with a fake bamboo handle. They stealthily snuck into the front yard, planning to catch the fireflies off guard but somehow the fireflies knew they were there and used evasion tactics such as flying out of reach. Daddy and Molly were only able to catch one firefly. This one firefly did not light up at all in his new home. Was it because the new home smelled overly of pickle residue? Was it because he was the only firefly in connecticut feeble enough to be caught and therefore too feeble to light up? Or was it perhaps because he was lonely for his friends?
Molly posited that he couldn't be lonely because we were his new friends but Daddy and I outvoted her and suggested that we return him to the wild where we could catch him again (now that we knew him personally) on another night when perhaps more of his friends would come along. Apparently (according to Molly) many of the fireflies were attending a big birthday party that night and so surely another night we would have better luck. So we read only one story that night, because we had only one firefly.