Marloth Missive To a male firefly, the most exciting thing on earth is the flashing light signal given off by the females of his species! All that glitters is not gold, they say. In this case, all that flashes may not be an invitation to a wild night of passion! This is how it works: the female sends out a coded message that she wants some fun. She does this by sending a very specific signal, for example a series of five quick flashes per second, repeated every few seconds. The males get the message loud and clear and rush to meet her need. Things start to get complicated at this stage. You see, there are many species of fireflies, and the signals sent out by females are targeted at the males of her species to ensure no inter-breeding of species. At this stage I should mention that these little females are carnivorous, So it appears that the signal sent out by the female depends on whether shes hungry for love, or just hungry. If shes just hungry, shell send out a signal to attract a male of a different species, by flashing her light at the frequency she knows will attract him. When he arrives, he finds that theres no loving on the menu, but rather hes the main dish! Scientists studying these fascinating little creatures have discovered that they produce light by a process of oxidation. Its an incredibly efficient method of producing light - far more efficient than anything man has come up with, and it has the huge advantage that it doesnt need batteries, or any other external power source. And as long as theyre alive, they can produce light any time they want. There is so much we still have to discover about insects. I have always brushed them off as fascinating but basically insignificant; prey for higher species. How wrong can you be?
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 06:47:36 +0000
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