Department of Biology and Applied Coastal Research Laboratory, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia 30460-8042.
Integr Comp Biol. 2004 Jun;44(3):259-63. doi: 10.1093/icb/44.3.259.
Synchronous flashing occurs in certain species of Southeast Asian and North American fireflies. Most Southeast Asian synchrony involves stationary congregating fireflies, but North American synchrony occurs in flying fireflies that do not congregate. Southeast Asian synchrony is usually continuous, but North American synchrony is interrupted. Photuris frontalis, the only member of the North American genus Photuris to synchronize, shows an intermittent synchrony. This involves synchronization and repeated re-synchronizations while in flight. The precision that occurs at the start of synchrony was studied in Ph. frontalis using caged fireflies and photometry. Barrier experiments (using two fireflies) or flash entrainment experiments (using one LED and one firefly) were performed to measure the temporal precision of the first entrained flash. In both cases, the first entrained flash was close to unison synchrony (phase = 1.0) and showed little variability. The behavioral implications of the ability to synchronize with the first entrained flash are not known, but it might facilitate male-male interactions during brief, transient encounters such as maintaining distance between closely flying males in search of females.
某些东南亚和北美的萤火虫会出现同步闪光。大多数东南亚的同步现象涉及静止的聚集萤火虫，但北美的同步现象发生在不聚集的飞行萤火虫中。东南亚的同步现象通常是连续的，但北美的同步现象是间断的。北美属 Photuris 中唯一同步的 Photuris frontalis 表现出间歇性同步。这涉及到在飞行中同步和重复重新同步。利用笼养萤火虫和光度计研究了 Ph. frontalis 中同步开始时的精度。通过使用两个萤火虫进行障碍实验（barrier experiments）或使用一个 LED 和一个萤火虫进行闪光诱发实验（flash entrainment experiments），来测量第一个被诱发闪光的时间精度。在这两种情况下，第一个被诱发的闪光非常接近同步（相位=1.0），且变化很小。第一个被诱发闪光的同步能力的行为意义尚不清楚，但它可能有助于雄性在短暂、瞬态的相遇中进行互动，例如在搜索雌性时保持近距离飞行的雄性之间的距离。
