• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Firefly Flashes

Firefly Flashes

July 25, 2006
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/060725_sciup_fire.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):
Why do fireflies flash? I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Listener Kevin Lane from Whitewater, Wisconsin, wrote to ask whether firefly flashes are a type of communication. Well, Kevin, firefly expert Sara Lewis from Tufts University in Massachusetts says they are. In fact, scientists have recently decoded the flashes of one type of firefly and found that they use the timing of the flashes to signal to potential mates. She says you can try this one at home.

SARA LEWIS (Tufts University):
You can go out with a pen light and imitate the flash of a male, and you can get females of that species to respond to you very easily. You can talk to fireflies.

HIRSHON:
She adds another type of firefly—one that eats other fireflies—also imitates these flashes in order to lure their prey. Flash us a message at 1-800-why-isit with your science question. If we use it on the air, you’ll win a Science Update

Category: Daily ShowTag: Animal Behavior
Previous Post:Feeling Machine
Next Post:Apple Protection

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos