Fascinating Discovery: Male Fireflies Change Light Patterns to Attract Mates After Spider Capture

In nature, males usually go after females to mate. But what if they find, instead of a woman, a trap? This is what scientists found happening to fireflies​​​​ that fly over the fields of Wuhan, China.

Among the tropical Asian fireflies of the species A hidden terminalmales and females have different light patterns, used to attract mates. Males flash in a fast, double pattern with two flashlights on the abdomen, while females flash with one flashlight slowly.

Some men can change this light pattern in cases where they want to stand out from others. However, biologists noticed that males changed the way they blinked when they were caught by spiders of the species Araneus ventricosus. As a result, other men are attracted, thinking that they are going to meet a woman. When they get there, the spider also preys on them. The study was recently published in the journal Current Biology.

The research began when Xinhua Fu from Huazhong Agricultural University noticed a phenomenon happening to Wuhan fireflies, with several webs with only males trapped in them. From there, Daiqin Li from the National University of Singapore joined the study.

Together, the two biologists examined 161 spider webs in the field, and divided them into four groups:

• those who had a male firefly in the orb and a spider;
• those who only had the firefly, without the spider;
• those who had both, but the fire torch was painted black;
• and the nets that were their own.

As a result, scientists observed that webs that had the complete system, with a trapped male firefly and a spider, caught up to seven other male flies. On the other hand, the webs without spiders did not get more than two more fires.

Another important information recorded is that the behavior of the spiders changed in the different groups. When the firefly has a firefly, the spider does not consume it immediately, but leaves it alive until it blinks. Painted torch fireflies, when caught, are immediately destroyed.

Although the results are very interesting, further research is still needed. It is not known for sure if it is the spider that manipulates the firefly’s light on purpose, or if it is a poison that paralyzes one of the insects’ lanterns.