“Conversations with Fireflies” by Lisa Carloye

Handout 1

The figure below portrays the luminescent signals of selected fireflies. The response used by the predator is shown beneath the female it mimics. Vertical bars at right indicate observed individual repertoires; N is the number of females exhibiting the repertoire. Capture rates (percentages) are adjacent to prey species. The flash rate of the congener female is variable, and the specific nature of the coding is unknown.

Figure displaying signal repertoires

Prey species:
Photinus macdermotti
Photinus tanytoxus
Photuris sp. A
Photuris congener

Predator/mimic:
Photuris versicolor (i.e., femme fatale)

Questions

  1. What do the black horizontal humps represent in the body of the graph?
  2. In general, what information does this graph convey?
  3. Compare the normal mating flash-response pattern of the femme fatale with that of the mating signals used by her prey species.
  4. How perfect does the mimic have to be?
  5. What are the potential benefits of this predation strategy?

Go to Handout 2


Image Credit: Figure adapted from “Aggressive mimicry in Photuris Fireflies: Signal repertoires by femmes fatales” Lloyd, J. E. (1975) Science 187(4175): 452–453.

Originally published at http://www.sciencecases.org/fireflies/handout1.asp

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