After being captured, the luminous males change the way they emit lights, adopting characteristics typical of females.
In nature, males usually chase females to mate. But what if they find a trap instead? That's what scientists have discovered is happening to fireflies flying over fields in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Among the tropical Asian fireflies of this type are: Absent EndMales and females have different light patterns, used to attract mates. Males flash a rapid double pattern using two flashlights on their abdomen, while females flash a single flashlight slowly.
Some males may change this light pattern in cases where they want to stand out from others. However, biologists have observed that males change the way they blink their eyes when they are captured by spiders of this species. Ventricular araniusAs a result, other males are attracted, thinking they will meet a female. When they get there, they are also preyed upon by the spider. The study was recently published in the journal Current Biology.
The research began when Shenhua Fu of Huazhong Agricultural University noticed a phenomenon happening to Wuhan fireflies, where several webs were trapped with only males. From there, Daiqin Li of the National University of Singapore joined the study.
Together, the two biologists studied 161 spider webs in the field, dividing them into four groups:
- Those who had a male firefly in the orb and a spider;
- Those who have only the firefly, without the spider;
- Those who had both, but the firefly lantern was painted black;
- And the networks that were alone.
As a result, the scientists observed that webs containing the complete system, with one male firefly and one spider, captured up to seven other male fireflies. On the other hand, spider webs captured no more than two other fireflies.
Another important piece of information recorded is that the behavior of spiders changed in different groups. When a firefly has a flashlight, the spider does not immediately eat it, but leaves it alive so that it continues to flash. Fireflies with painted lanterns are eaten immediately when captured.
Although the results are very interesting, more research is still needed. It is not known for sure whether the spider is deliberately manipulating the firefly's light, or whether its venom is paralyzing one of the insect's lamps.
