So far we have looked at forms of mimicry that aid in defense of the organisms. This time we shall have have a look at "Aggressive" mimicry. Agressive mimicry is employed by predators, parasites and parasitoids. It functions in such a way that these organisms give of harmless signals to their prey/host allowing them to remain undetected. They may model the design of the prey species themselves or of a species that is not deemed threatening. A nice analogy would be that of 'a wolf in sheep's clothing'. An interesting example of aggressive mimicry is that employed by female fireflies of the genus
Photuris. They are also known as the Feme fatale firefly as the females of this genus mimic the mating signals of other firefly species in order to lure in their male prey. Once the male of the prey species comes in contact he is overpowered then eaten as shown below (Lewis & Crastley, 2008)! There is a secondary benefit to this behavior as the female acquires lucibufagins (defensive steroids) from the males which gives protection against jumping spiders (Eisner et al., 2007).
References:
Eisner, T, Gomez M A, Hill D E, Smedley, S R, Meinwald J 1997, 'Firefly "femmes fatales" acquire defensive steroids (lucifagins) from their firefly prey',
PNAS, vol. 94, pp 9723-9728.
Lewis, S M, Crastley C K 2008, 'Flash Signal Evolution, Mate Choice, and Predation in Fireflies'
Annual Review of Entomology, vol. 53, pp 293-321.
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9110/agressive-mimicry
bioteaching.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/fireflies-coleoptera-lampyridae/
Fascinating. It’s interesting that this species is able to accumulate steroids for defense. You state that the female mimics the mating signals of other firefly male species. Does she do this chemically (using pheromones or other chemical components), vocally (using vocal signals or calls) or in some other manner? Good post.
ReplyDeleteHi Tasmin,
ReplyDeleteapologies for not clarifying the manner of how she mimics. Many fire fly species communicate with each other via patterns of flashing that they produce. The feme fatale's mimic the light signal's of other species communicating their desire to mate, luring in their unsuspecting prey!