What do fireflies rely on to transmit information?

Fireflies are very active after sunset 1 hour, striving for time to pursue each other. The male will flash quickly or slowly for 20 seconds, wait for 20 seconds, signal again, and wait patiently for the strong light response of the female. When there is no response, the male will fly elsewhere.

There is a kind of firefly that lives by eating male fireflies. This kind of "fatal lover" has not been found in China at present. Most of them live in North America. Unlike American fireflies, they don't eat food all their lives, or only eat pollen and dew. They are standard carnivores. This firefly can "seduce" males by imitating the female flashes of other fireflies. When male fireflies think their courtship has been answered, they come.

There are more than 2,000 species of fireflies in the world, most of which appear in rivers, ponds and farmland in summer, and their range of activities generally does not leave the water source. Officially, fireflies refer to their larvae, while fireflies refer to luminous adults. Male fireflies are more active and will fly around to attract the opposite sex. The female stopped on the leaves and waited for the signal. There is an apatite-luminescent substance in fireflies, which will cause a series of chemical reactions under the action of luminescent enzymes. Only about 1% of the energy it emits is converted into heat energy, and the rest is converted into light energy. The light it emits is called luminescence. Common fireflies are yellow and green. Sometimes it is red or orange-red. The difference in color is due to the different three-dimensional structure of luciferase, which emits green light when it is closely combined with luminescent substances. On the contrary, it is red or orange-red fluorescence. The male firefly has two nodes in its abdomen, while the female has only 1 node. Lighting is an energy-consuming activity, and it doesn't light up all night. Generally, it only lasts 2 to 3 hours. The life span of adults is generally only 5 days to 2 weeks, which is mainly for mating and breeding the next generation.

As for the use of fireflies, the assumptions put forward by early scholars include courtship, communication, lighting, warning, display, ethnic adjustment and other functions; However, apart from courtship and communication, other functions are only the results of observation by scientists, or just speculation. Until recent years, some scholars have verified the warning: 1999, scholar Knight and others found that lizards who eat fireflies by mistake will die, confirming that the glow of adults not only looks for mates, but also has the function of warning other creatures; Scholars Underwood and others did experiments with mice in 1997, which confirmed that the larval luminescence had a warning effect on mice.

Fireflies glow for courtship. Some species of fireflies only have male luminous organs, while others have both. Some species of fireflies are flashing, while others are constantly glowing. This signal varies from species to species, with different length and rhythm. Among fireflies in North America, males also have luminous organs. The key to male-female identification is that the male reacts two seconds after receiving the light signal from the female. Among other species,

The female salamander can imitate the intermittent light signal of the female salamander, thus attracting and preying on the male salamander. Some fireflies in Photuris even have a complete set of optical signal coding tables of Photinius species. As long as they sit right, they can trap flying Photinius fireflies.

All fireflies only glow at night. During the day, their light is not strong enough to attract the attention of their peers.

There are many kinds of fireflies whose females can't fly. They are bigger than males and can lay many eggs.