There’s method in a firefly’s flashes
The light signals can be a mating call or a way to ward off predators
By
Leah Rosenbaum
7:00am, August 24, 2018
FLASH DANCE Fireflies use their tail lights for mating. New evidence suggests that the flashing may also warn off nocturnal predators.
Dr. Stephen Marshall
A firefly’s blinking behind is more than just a pretty summer sight.
It’s known that fireflies flash to attract mates (SN Online: 8/12/15) — but the twinkles may serve another purpose as well. Jesse Barber, a biologist at Boise State University, had a hunch that the lights also warn off potential nighttime predators. He wasn’t the first person with this hypothesis. As far back as 1882, entomologist G.H. Bowles wrote of fireflies: “May not the light then serve … as a warning of their offensiveness to creatures that would devour them?†But the theory hadn’t been tested, until now. “We always assumed that bats don’t use vision for much,†Barber says.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fireflies-lightning-bugs-flashes-predators
