Symposium: Insect Behavioral Ecology--'89: Firefly Semiosystematics and Predation: A History

Abstract

Modern firefly systematics began when it was realized that the luminescent patterns emitted by flying, mate-seeking males provided an invaluable clue for recognizing species in nature. An approach in systematics giving special attention to these signals ("semios") could be called semiosystematics, the focus thus being on the coded patterns that the insects are using for "interbreeding" (gene flow), and/or non-interbreeding (isolation). In North America, Photuris spp. females prey upon signaling males of other species by mimicking the mating signals of their preys' females, and by directing aerial attacks toward the males' signals. Countermeasures against these attacks that have evolved in the signals of prey species, and aspects of the signals of the predator species that have evolved as a result of the mimicry predation, may be dominant features in the signaling of many of these fireflies. The flash signals that firefly systematists have used, and in particular those that have given difficulty for decades, may often be (or historically have been) closely connected with this strong ecological force, predation.