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Female lightning bug are appeal to flashier males . Unfortunately , so are the insect ’ predatory animal , a new study suggests .
Summer evenings in Pyrophorus noctiluca territorial dominion might look to us like nothing more than a blazing lite show . But to females of thefireflies speciesPhotinus , the melodic phrase is abuzz with mating chance .
The lustrous flashes yield by the manful fireflies are signals designed to catch the roving middle of an interested female . If she ’s feelin ' one of the males , the distaff flashes back in response . former research on several firefly metal money has shown that females hooked up more readily with males that flaunt longer and quicker .
" The obvious orientation for males that can flash more prominently is passably like to the way peahen choose peacocks that have larger , more colorful tails , " said lead investigator Sara Lewis of Tufts University .
While investigators are still looking into why distaff fireflies dig males that bring in the bling , another mystery that ’s been mystify scientists , she says , is the interrogation of " what ’s keeping these Male from evolving longer and faster fanfare ? " since it ’s so advantageous .
Lewis and her team wanted to obtain out what the potential monetary value were to being a showier firefly . So using electronic fake Pyrophorus noctiluca , the researchers run an experimentation to see if conspicuous flashes pull more than just the attention of potential match — and in fussy , predators .
They found that predatory fire beetle known asPhoturiswere more draw to bogus firefly signals compare to non - flashing but otherwise identical controls . Also , when the flash signals were more frequent , they were even more potential to attract the predator .
Photurisfireflies are sometimes referred to as femme fatale fire beetle because the females mimic the light signal of other firefly species to attract , kill , and eat them .
The findings will be detailed in the November issue of the journalAmerican Naturalist .
Although the experiment involved only phoney Pyrophorus noctiluca , Lewis suspects that the predators touch the evolution of lightning bug signals by " eavesdropping " on theirprey , thus circumscribe just how conspicuous the fireflies ’ newsflash can get .
So every night , she adds , male fireflies are out there flying a hunky-dory line between sex and expiry .
