Female Fireflies Hunt Males of the Synchronous Firefly (Coleoptera: Lampyridae).

() are female fireflies that hunt and feed on the males of other firefly species that they attract by responding with glows or flashes to their bioluminescent signals. Here, we present field observations demonstrating that females are of male , a synchronous firefly exploited as a tourist attraction in the mountains of central Mexico. We show that the hunting success of the is low, as observed in previous studies, suggesting that the impact of predation on the prey population is low. We present experimental data showing sex-specific hunting behaviour, since only female fed on We also present experimental data showing that at least some female mate multiple times; we discuss the implications of this discovery for the switch between the mating and hunting modes of . We discuss open questions, as well as the possible impact of on tourism focused on synchronous fireflies.