What happens when an unfortunate bug ends up in a spider’s web? It gets bitten and wrapped in silk, and becomes a meal. But if the web belongs to an orb-weaver and the bug is a male firefly, it seems the trapped firefly — once bitten — ends up imitating a female’s flash pattern and luring other males to their doom.
Fireflies communicate with flash patterns (something you can experiment with yourself using nothing more than a green LED) and males looking to mate will fly around flashing a multi-pulse pattern with their two light-emitting lanterns. Females will tend to remain in one place and flash single-pulse patterns on their one lantern.
When a male spots a female, they swoop in to mate. Spiders have somehow figured out a way to actively take advantage of this, not just inserting themselves into the process but actively and masterfully manipulating male fireflies, causing them to behave in a way they would normally never do. All with the purpose of subverting firefly behavior for their own benefit.
It all started with an observation that almost all fireflies in webs were male, and careful investigation revealed it’s not just some odd coincidence. When spiders are not present, the male fireflies don’t act any differently. When a spider is present and detects a male firefly, the spider wraps and bites the firefly differently than other insects. It’s unknown exactly what happens, but this somehow results in the male firefly imitating a female’s flash patterns. Males see this and swoop in to mate, but with a rather different outcome than expected.
The research paper contains added details but it’s clear that there is more going on in this process than meets the eye. Spiders are already fascinating creatures (we’ve seen an amazing eye-tracking experiment on jumping spiders) and it’s remarkable to see this sort of bio-hacking going on under our very noses.
Hackafirefly
B^)
I wonder if this has anything to do with whatever kind of messaging (Chemical? Optical? Psychic bug network a la Starship Troopers?) enables fireflies to synchronize their flashing with each other when they’ve all landed on the same tree. Ever seen that? I thought it was just mythical until I saw it the first time
This is genius! Hackers in nature!
Makes for a better Alien movie than Romulus.
Nature is almost always far more horrifying than anything Hollywood can conjure.
Turning victims into zombies.
There is some kind of parasite that preys on other insects, and it’s flesh eating larva first gnaw though the leg motion nerves of their prey, and after that they eat the rest of their prey while carefully avoiding killing their host for as long as possible, because that would spoil their meat supply prematurely.
That’s almost as bad as what cordyceps does to some insects, like ants – it’s a fungus which essentially turns them into ‘zombies’ to infect others.
Thus, the backstory of “The Last of Us” video game and TV series.
That’s because nature is even crueler than Hollywood executives, just.
What is the story of the choice of director for that one? The guy seems like a total hack. Friend of Ridley Scott’s wife?
Even better than The Last of Us!
Spiders should know already this is illegal.
also serves as a good example of group selection not working. fireflies that are caught and used to lure further prey cannot pass on any genes. there is no selective pressure for individual fireflies to block the spider’s forcefem mechanism. the group of fireflies would be better adapted if they blocked it, but group selection usually does not work in nature.
There IS a pressure to block that mechanism. Features appear randomly and they are either selected positively (individuals with a feature have higher chance to have offspring) or negatively (individuals with feature have lower chance to have offspring). Here, when the feature to resist those spiders finally emerges, males with that feature will have higher chance to have offspring. It just didn’t happen yet, doesn’t mean there is no pressure.
You were doing fine till your conclusion.
The features to resist the spider will have no selection pressure, because those Fireflies are already caught, meaning they will never mate.
The only part that could have selection pressure is if free male fireflies got a feature to detect the fake signal used as a lure.
In that case, they could avoid being caught, and then pass on their genes.
There is no personal benefit to resisting the spider, because they are already as good as dead, and the target they are luring is a competing male anyway.
It would help their species, but not their specific genetic line.
If they will be caught, those features absolutely were not effective. If they would be effective, at least some fireflies will not be caught and will pass on genes.
“group selection usually does not work in nature”
Where do you get that idea from? A YEC?
Evolution occurs at the level of populations, not individuals.
Imagine it’s the pleistocene. You were born with a slight genetic change that gives you some tiny advantage in surviving or reproducing. Your brother was not. The two of you leave your shelter to go out and hunt. You go left, he goes right. Damn! you picked the way that lead to a Smilodon. It ate you. Game over. You are dead. In his direction there was a wild boar that he killed and brought home to the tribe. Oh well.. future humanity is not going to inherit that good gene from you!
Get lucky however (and get lucky) before you die. Now that gene passing on that tiny increase in odds of success is spread around among more people. Any one has an almost negligible increase in fitness but multiplied by the group it is significant enough that a greater number will survive and reproduce.
So the group evolves.
Same concept means that a gene that does nothing for the individual, such as not flashing a mating call when bitten by a spider who is definitely going to eat you before you reproduce… but benefits the group. If it survives that early random-chance period it will create a more fit group and so get passed on.
Likewise, all those dumb questions YECs ask.. where does empathy, an instinct to help others, the ability to perceive right vs wrong, etc.. come from? There’s a lot to talk about regarding nature vs nurture there but as far as genetic capability goes, if it benefits the group it gets passed on.
Almost right.
Evolution isn’t a process.
Evolution doesn’t “happen”.
Evolution is what we call the result when we look at a system and see that changes happened.
Evolution is always past tense, because it is just a perspective.
The changes themselves are just mutation.
It’s a dumb sounding distinction, but it is important, because it doesn’t need to rely on anthropomorphism or any of the other really bad ways we talk about science/tech stuff.
Something mutated and it didn’t die.
“The only good bug is a dead bug!” – Some Guy
Spider: “I’m doing my part!”
probably Dale Gribble, aka Admiral Rusty Shackleford, of King of the Hill, proprietor of “Dale’s Dead Bug” exterminator services.
The spiders hack fireflies, like FB and twitter hacks us to exploit ourselves and fellow citizens, but for different reasons.
It seems that we are not smarter than the fireflies.
I like blinking lights… wait…