News in Brief Animals

Light pollution may disrupt firefly sex

Female flashing at night declines under LEDs, study suggests

firefly

NIGHT LIGHT  The natural flash and flash-back courtships of fireflies may not go well as people artificially light up the night.

terry priest/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

BALTIMORE — The glow of LED lights might throw off the flirtations of fireflies, new tests suggest.

Females of the big dipper species (Photinus pyralis) don’t flash back at twinkling males quite as often as expected when forced to court under artificial light, says ecologist Ariel Firebaugh of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.