Leave me alone: solitary females attract more mates in a nocturnal insect

Lehtonen, Topi K.; Kaitala, Arja

doi:10.1093/beheco/araa049

Cited by 10 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…These results suggest that the strong intensity of the artificial light overrode differences in the weaker glow intensity of females. In areas with low-intensity artificial light, differences among females in glow intensity may still influence mating success, as males are known to prefer brighter females [ 29 , 45 , 46 ]. A larger sample size may be needed to detect the weaker effect of glow intensity on mate attraction as no significant effect of glow intensity on mate attraction was detected in the controls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproduction under light pollution: maladaptive response to spatial variation in artificial light in a glow-worm

et al. 2020

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The amount of artificial light at night is growing worldwide, impacting the behaviour of nocturnal organisms. Yet, we know little about the consequences of these behavioural responses for individual fitness and population viability. We investigated if females of the common glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca —which glow in the night to attract males—mitigate negative effects of artificial light on mate attraction by adjusting the timing and location of glowing to spatial variation in light conditions. We found females do not move away from light when exposed to a gradient of artificial light, but delay or even refrain from glowing. Further, we demonstrate that this response is maladaptive, as our field study showed that staying still when exposed to artificial light from a simulated streetlight decreases mate attraction success, while moving only a short distance from the light source can markedly improve mate attraction. These results indicate that glow-worms are unable to respond to spatial variation in artificial light, which may be a factor in their global decline. Consequently, our results support the hypothesis that animals often lack adaptive behavioural responses to anthropogenic environmental changes and underlines the importance of considering behavioural responses when investigating the effects of human activities on wildlife.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproduction under light pollution: maladaptive response to spatial variation in artificial light in a glow-worm

et al. 2020

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“…These additional costs associated with glow renewal, and generally signal maintenance, may contribute towards the trade-off between signaling duration and intensity, limiting the ability of female glow-worms to signal for long duration and at high intensity. Because male glow-worms are attracted to brighter females (Hopkins et al 2015;Lehtonen and Kaitala 2020), females may always glow intensively to ensure male attraction, at the expense of signal duration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the common glow-worm, males seem to select the female that is the most visible to them, whether the female is alone or in the presence of competitors (Hopkins et al 2015;Hopkins 2018;Lehtonen and Kaitala 2020). Unlike in firefly species in which both males and females fly, in the common glow-worm males are not known to exhibit any visible courtship, and there is no evidence that males are choosy, other than selecting the first conspicuous female they come across (Lehtonen and Kaitala 2020). Similarly, female glow-worms may have the opportunity to be choosy only if multiple males arrive within a short time window and this is commonly not the case (personal observations).…”

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female Sexual Signaling in a Capital Breeder, the European Glow-Worm Lampyris noctiluca

et al. 2021

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Theory predicts that because costs constrain female sexual signaling, females are expected to have a low signaling effort that is increased with passing time until mating is secured. This pattern of signaling is expected to result from females balancing the costs associated with a higher than optimal signaling effort and those costs associated with a low signaling effort that increase the likelihood of delayed mating. We tested whether this prediction applies in the common glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca (Coleoptera, Lampyridae), a capital breeding species in which females glow at night to attract males. Contrary to predictions, we found that the duration of female sexual signaling significantly decreased with time. Moreover, when females experienced multiple light/dark cycles within 24 h, both signaling duration and intensity significantly decreased. These results imply that females attempt to signal as much as possible at first, with the decrease in signaling duration and intensity likely being due to female resource depletion. Because in capital breeding females the costs of a delayed mating are likely greater than the costs of sexual signaling, females should mate as soon as possible and thus always invest into signaling as much as possible.

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“…Given that both female size and other factors that increase glow intensity are expected to increase mate attraction success (e.g. Hopkins et al 2015;Lehtonen and Kaitala 2020), it is reasonable to ask what prevents females in the lower latitude sites from growing to a larger size and producing a brighter glow, similar to females at the northern sites. Most Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In many areas within this range, including England (Hickmott and Tyler 2011) and southern Finland (personal observations), adults are most active between June and July when summer nights are at their shortest and brightest. During the narrow timeframe when the sun is set, flying males search for females, with the brightest, and thus largest (Hopkins et al 2015) females having the highest probability of attracting a mate (Tyler 2002;Hopkins et al 2015;Lehtonen and Kaitala 2020). Females produce their mate attraction glow with chemical chain reactions within a light organ in the tip of their abdomen (Tyler 2002).…”

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

When night never falls: female sexual signalling in a nocturnal insect along a latitudinal gradient

Borshagovski

Saari

Lehtonen

et al. 2020

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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The environment can play an important role in animal communication by affecting signal transmission and detection. Variation in the signalling environment is expected to be especially pronounced in widely distributed species, potentially affecting how their signals are detected. Such environmental variability is presumably relevant for sedentary females of a nocturnal capital breeder, the European common glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca), which produce green light during the night to attract flying males to mate. Being widely distributed in Europe, glow-worm populations are exposed to both rapidly descending, darker summer nights in the south, and slowly dimming, brighter summer nights further north, with the latter potentially posing challenges to the visibility of the female glow. To test how female signalling is affected by latitude, we sampled glowing females during summer nights along a latitudinal gradient in Finland, Northern Europe, and used a novel apparatus to measure the intensity and peak wavelength (hue/colour) of their glow. Surprisingly, females at higher latitudes, similar to those at lower latitudes, were commonly glowing during the brightest (and hence the shortest) nights of the year. Females also glowed brighter in more northern areas, partly due to their larger body size, whereas the colour of their glow was not associated with latitude. Since females glow even during midsummer, independent of latitude, the increase in glow intensity at higher latitudes presumably serves to maintain signal visibility in brighter signalling conditions. Overall, these findings highlight the influence of environmental conditions on the evolution of sexual signals, especially in the context of species distribution range. Significance statement When environmental conditions impact signal transmission and perception, local conditions can have a crucial role in shaping animal communication and signal evolution. To analyse how dark-dependant common glow-worm females cope with variable nocturnal light environments, we used a novel apparatus, presumably not applied to living animals before, to measure female glow intensity at various latitudes along a latitudinal gradient. Interestingly, females did not avoid signalling during the brightest summer nights, but instead, their glow intensity and body size both increased with latitude. These findings suggest that females can ensure visibility to mate-searching males over a range of local conditions. Our study therefore shows how females can adapt to environmental constraints on signal visibility, and how the expression of sexual signals is shaped not only by social interactions but also by the signalling environment.

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Leave me alone: solitary females attract more mates in a nocturnal insect

Cited by 10 publications

References 35 publications

Reproduction under light pollution: maladaptive response to spatial variation in artificial light in a glow-worm

Reproduction under light pollution: maladaptive response to spatial variation in artificial light in a glow-worm

Female Sexual Signaling in a Capital Breeder, the European Glow-Worm Lampyris noctiluca

When night never falls: female sexual signalling in a nocturnal insect along a latitudinal gradient

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