Species-Specific Flash Patterns Track the Nocturnal Behavior of Sympatric Taiwanese Fireflies

It is highly challenging to evaluate the species' content and behavior changes in wild fireflies, especially for a sympatric population. Here, the flash interval (FI) and flash duration (FD) of flying males from three sympatric species ( , , and ) were investigated for their potentials in asses...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2022-01, Vol.11 (1), p.58
Main Authors: Goh, King-Siang, Lee, Chia-Ming, Wang, Tzi-Yuan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal reproduction
Behavior
Cameras
Climate change
Conservation
Digital video
firefly
flash duration
flash interval
flash pattern
Habitats
Humidity
Lampyridae
Light pollution
Light sources
Luciola
Nocturnal
Population
Software
Species composition
species identification
sympatric population
Sympatric populations
Trails
Wildfires
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Summary:It is highly challenging to evaluate the species' content and behavior changes in wild fireflies, especially for a sympatric population. Here, the flash interval (FI) and flash duration (FD) of flying males from three sympatric species ( , , and ) were investigated for their potentials in assessing species composition and nocturnal behaviors during the mating season. Both FI and FD were quantified from the continuous flashes of adult fireflies (lasting 5-30 s) via spatiotemporal analyses of video recorded along the Genliao hiking trail in Taipei, Taiwan. Compared to FD patterns and flash colors, FI patterns exhibited the highest species specificity, making them a suitable reference for differentiating firefly species. Through the case study of a massive occurrence of (21 April 2018), the species contents (~85% of the flying population) and active periods of a sympatric population comprising and were successfully evaluated by FI pattern matching, as well as field specimen collections. Our study suggests that FI patterns may be a reliable species-specific luminous marker for monitoring the behavioral changes in a sympatric firefly population in the field, and has implication values for firefly conservation.
ISSN:2079-7737
2079-7737
DOI:10.3390/biology11010058