School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK.
Department of Zoology: Functional Morphology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 18b, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
J Exp Biol. 2020 Sep 30;223(Pt 19):jeb229146. doi: 10.1242/jeb.229146.
Artificial lighting at night (ALAN) is increasingly recognised as having negative effects on many organisms, though the exact mechanisms remain unclear. Glow worms are likely susceptible to ALAN because females use bioluminescence to signal to attract males. We quantified the impact of ALAN by comparing the efficacy of traps that mimicked females to attract males in the presence or absence of a white artificial light source (ALS). Illuminated traps attracted fewer males than did traps in the dark. Illuminated traps closer to the ALS attracted fewer males than those further away, whereas traps in the dark attracted similar numbers of males up to 40 m from the ALS. Thus, ALAN impedes females' ability to attract males, the effect increasing with light intensity. Consequently, ALAN potentially affects glow worms' fecundity and long-term population survival. More broadly, this study emphasises the potentially severe deleterious effects of ALAN upon nocturnal insect populations.
夜间人工照明（ALAN）被越来越多地认为对许多生物具有负面影响，尽管确切的机制尚不清楚。萤火虫可能容易受到 ALAN 的影响，因为雌性利用生物发光来发出信号吸引雄性。我们通过比较模仿雌性以在有或没有白色人工光源（ALS）的情况下吸引雄性的诱捕器的效果来量化 ALAN 的影响。有光照的诱捕器吸引的雄性比黑暗中的诱捕器少。与远离 ALS 的诱捕器相比，靠近 ALS 的诱捕器吸引的雄性更少，而在黑暗中，诱捕器在距离 ALS 40 米以内吸引的雄性数量相似。因此，ALAN 阻碍了雌性吸引雄性的能力，其影响随光照强度的增加而增加。因此，ALAN 可能会影响萤火虫的繁殖力和长期种群生存。更广泛地说，这项研究强调了 ALAN 对夜间昆虫种群可能产生的严重有害影响。
