Hanson F E
Fed Proc. 1978 Jun;37(8):2158-64.
Rhythmic flashing behavior of synchronous flashing fireflies from Malaysia and New Guinea was studied. The "circa second" firefly pacemaker has characteristics analogous to circadian rhythms, such as entrainment, phase shifting, limits of entrainment, fringe entrainment, and effects of the light:dark ratio on phase. The three species studied show different phase-response curves; a light pulse causes a large phase shift in one firefly species (Pteroptyx cribellata) but small phase shifts in others (Pteroptyx malaccae and Luciola pupilla). Comparative studies of the phase angle differences between the animal's flash and the flash of a controlled light source suggest at least two different mechanisms of attaining synchrony: 1) by cycle-to-cycle phase shifting of a stable oscillator; 2) by changing the underlying period (tau) of a variable oscillator.
对来自马来西亚和新几内亚的同步闪光萤火虫的节律性闪光行为进行了研究。“大约每秒一次”的萤火虫起搏器具有与昼夜节律类似的特征，如同步化、相位移动、同步化极限、边缘同步化以及光暗比相位的影响。所研究的三个物种显示出不同的相位响应曲线；光脉冲在一种萤火虫（筛孔熠萤）中会引起较大的相位移动，但在其他萤火虫（马来熠萤和黑翅萤）中引起的相位移动较小。对动物闪光与受控光源闪光之间相位角差异的比较研究表明，至少有两种不同的同步机制：1）通过稳定振荡器的逐周期相位移动；2）通过改变可变振荡器的基础周期（τ）。
