Spiders use fireflies as flashing lures to catch extra prey

As soon as orb-weaver spiders ensnare male fireflies of their webs, they flip the doomed bugs into bait, utilizing their telltale flashing to lure in additional meals.

Xinhua Fu at Huazhong Agricultural College in China seen male fireflies (Abscondita terminalis), however no females of the species, usually acquired caught within the internet of an orb-weaver spider (Araneus ventricosus), and he questioned if the male bugs had been being lured into the entice. Each men and women of this firefly species use flashing indicators in courtship, and females’ gentle exhibits appeal to males to their location. So Fu and his colleagues investigated how the spiders may be exploiting this love language.

In a stretch of farmland in Hubei Province, China, the group ran a collection of experiments on 161 totally different webs, some with and a few with out spiders. The researchers positioned a male firefly – a few of which had their vivid abdomens blacked out with ink – in every internet. They discovered webs with each a spider and a freely flashing firefly attracted extra male fireflies, in comparison with webs with no spiders current or with solely non-flashing fireflies.

Additionally, the male fireflies entangled in a spider-occupied internet had an uncommon flash sign. It appeared extra like that of females, with one pulse as a substitute of two. However fireflies in an empty internet flashed usually.

This implies the spiders are manipulating the male fireflies’ indicators to imitate these of females, luring in different males looking for mates, says group member Daiqin Li at Hubei College. Exactly how the spider alters its immobilised prey’s indicators remains to be unknown, however the researchers have some concepts.

“The spider’s venom or the bite itself may lead to changes in the ensnared males’ flashing pattern,” says Li.

Li is excited by seeing if different firefly-eating spiders use an analogous tactic. Different animals could use captured prey as lures by capitalising on various kinds of indicators, he says, equivalent to sounds or the discharge of pheromones.

“[The findings] once again demonstrate that spiders are not passive foragers,” says Mariella Herberstein at Macquarie College in Australia. “We are discovering more and more cases of highly complex and selective feeding techniques.”