Bats avoid fireflies for dinner

11/06/2009

Bats love to eat insects on the wing, but apparently don't like  fireflies. Fireflies are blinking beetles that evolved their neon flashing "lanterns" specifically to avoid getting eaten, because they contain substances called lucibufagins that don't taste very good to most creatures that would eat them. In "Hungry Bats Prompt Firefly Flashes," Discovery Animal News' Jennifer Viegas reports a new study published in Animal Behavior that the presence of bats results in firefly flashes. The fireflies seem to be telling the bats "don't eat me!" The scientists examined the bat fecal pellets and found that they had very few fireflies.

In Long Live Fireflies! I blogged about the Firefly Watch program.