Short- and mid-wavelength artificial light influences the flash signals of Aquatica ficta fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) |
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Author: | Owens, Avalon Celeste Stevahn1; Meyer-Rochow, Victor Benno2,3; Yang, En-Cheng4 |
Organizations: |
1Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States of America 2Department of Genetics and Physiology, Oulu University, Oulu, Finland 3Research Institute of Luminous Organisms, Tokyo, Japan
4Department of Entomology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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Format: | article |
Version: | published version |
Access: | open |
Online Access: | PDF Full Text (PDF, 0.9 MB) |
Persistent link: | http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2019061720670 |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science,
2018
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Publish Date: | 2019-06-17 |
Description: |
AbstractUrbanization can radically disrupt natural ecosystems through alteration of the sensory environment. Habitat disturbances are predicted to favor behaviorally flexible species capable of adapting to altered environments. When artificial light at night (ALAN) is introduced into urban areas, it has the potential to impede reproduction of local firefly populations by obscuring their bioluminescent courtship signals. Whether individual fireflies can brighten their signals to maintain visibility against an illuminated background remains unknown. In this study, we exposed male Aquatica ficta fireflies to diffused light of varying wavelength and intensity, and recorded their alarm flash signals. When exposed to wavelengths at or below 533 nm, males emitted brighter signals with decreased frequency. This is the first evidence of individual-level light signal plasticity in fireflies. In contrast, long wavelength ambient light (≥ 597 nm) did not affect signal morphology, likely because A. ficta cannot perceive these wavelengths. These results suggest long wavelength lighting is less likely to impact firefly courtship, and its use in place of broad spectrum white lighting could augment firefly conservation efforts. More generally, this study demonstrates benefits of bioluminescent signal plasticity in a “noisy” signaling environment, and sheds light on an important yet understudied consequence of urbanization. see all
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Series: |
PLoS one |
ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
ISSN-E: | 1932-6203 |
ISSN-L: | 1932-6203 |
Volume: | 13 |
Issue: | 2 |
Article number: | e0191576 |
DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0191576 |
OADOI: | https://oadoi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191576 |
Type of Publication: |
A1 Journal article – refereed |
Field of Science: |
1181 Ecology, evolutionary biology |
Subjects: | |
Funding: |
Funding for firefly research provided to National Taiwan University by the Friends of Da’an Forest Park Foundation (http://www.daanforestpark.org.tw/ - grant number: FD97011). Some funding was allocated to ECY’s laboratory, and used by ECY and ACSO to purchase experimental equipment. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. |
Dataset Reference: |
Data Availability |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.73qg8 |
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Copyright information: |
© 2018 Owens et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |