Is Bioluminescence a Universal Trait in Living Organisms?

[EnumaElish]

As anyone who, as a child, trapped fireflies in a glass jar could testify, fireflies' glow makes it easy to find them.

Why isn't their glow a disadvantage when it comes to natural (detection, then) selection?

 

[Danger]

It's primarily a mating lure, as far as I know. Most likely, any predators who could see them easily are diurnal and so will be asleep when they're lit up. Bats don't count, because they can 'see' them just as well with sonar. That's just an educated guess, though.

 

[baywax]

It's primarily a mating lure, as far as I know. Most likely, any predators who could see them easily are diurnal and so will be asleep when they're lit up. Bats don't count, because they can 'see' them just as well with sonar. That's just an educated guess, though.

Good guess Danger.

its a "showy display of courtship" according to the Chronical of Higher Education.

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v47/i44/44a01601.htm

Here's some of the amazing facts about the fireflie's unique use of luciferin and luciferase.

The Chinese thought these twinkling little creatures came from burning grass. A European legend warned that if a lightning bug flew in the window, someone was going to die. Aztecs used the term firefly metaphorically, meaning a spark of knowledge in a world of ignorance or darkness. American Indians collected lightning bugs and smeared them as decorations on their faces and chest.

The taillight contains two rare chemicals, luciferin and luciferase. Luciferin, a heat resistant substrate, is the source of light; luciferase, an enzyme, is the trigger; and oxygen is the fuel. A body chemical, ATP (adenosine triphosphate), converts to energy and causes the luciferin-luciferase mixture to light up (edit: turning the ATP to ADP). Small internal injections of ATP in the firefly tail cause flashes of light that can be measured quantitatively. If you will notice, the firefly turns on its light when flying upward, at intervals of about 5.8 seconds. In the dark periods it coasts downward again. You may also have noticed that hundreds of them synchronize their flashes to appear simultaneously.

The ability of these insects to produce cold light (bioluminescence) has led to new flashlights and flares on the market today. Special electronic detectors, using firefly chemicals, have been placed in spacecraft to look for earth-life forms in outer space. When as little as one quadrillionth of a gram of ATP enters the rocket's detector, a flash of cold light is given off and the signal is recorded by scientists on earth. Other detectors warn that milk, food or water may be bacteria contaminated.

http://www.inspirationline.com/Brainteaser/firefly.htm

 

[Danger]

You have a gift for making bugs interesting, Baywax. Thanks.

 

[Ouabache]

when i go outside at night, this time of year, I see a multitude of these lightning bugs across nearby open fields, many flying to the top of tall pine trees. They remind me of bioluminescent organisms I'd seen in the ocean on a evening dive.

 

[Danger]

Well, it's the same chemical reaction involved in both cases (with, perhaps, minor differences). The reasons for bioluminescence vary from one species to another, but the mechanism is the same. Squids, who are actually quite intelligent, use it for communication, angler fish use it as bait, outdoorsmen and party girls use it (in synthisized form) as glow-sticks...

 

[jim mcnamara]

Actually, to answer the title: 'Why do fireflies exist (implied: when it seems they should not exist)'

Let's define improbable: 'couldn't or shouldn't exist' from my own point of view.

When you find an improbable creature or plant: it got that way as a positive response to being able to reproduce and survive better than it's cousins who were very likely less improbable, but who may no longer be around.

Each firefly has a species-specific flash - the males cruise around flashing, the females park on a leaf and flash greetings back. Boy meets girl.

Except in the case of Photuris - a predatory firefly that mimics the flying/flashing behavior of male Photinus. When female Photinus flashes back a predator finds dinner(1). When Photuris are active, female Photinus became shy about flashing back. No wonder...

(1) Kristian C. Demary and Sara M. Lewis. (2007) MALE COURTSHIP ATTRACTIVENESS AND PATERNITY SUCCESS IN PHOTINUS GREENI FIREFLIES. Evolution 61:2, 431–439

 

[baywax]

You have a gift for making bugs interesting, Baywax. Thanks.

Well, you might be right. I tried to explain fireflies to Sonny Terry from out of Chicago... the famous blues harmonica player (Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee) who happens to be blind... The insects were going at their mating ritual (not unlike myself) and I said, "Sonny, the fireflies are out tonight". He wondered what I was trying to say and so did I. But I did my best to explain the wonder it makes you feel to see these lights swirling around in a place where the only electricity is feeding the stage and a few little kiosks surrounding an audience of 20,000 people. Very cool dude. Never fazed unless Browny was telling him what to do.

 

[paralith]

Why isn't their glow a disadvantage when it comes to natural (detection, then) selection?

It probably is a disadvantage, to some degree. This is one of those cases where natural selection and sexual selection can have a sort of see-saw effect on certain traits. Females can more easily see and respond to a male who flashes brightly and obviously - so that male reproduces more. But get too bright and too obvious, and those types of males get eaten before they can reproduce much. It probably goes back and forth a little bit for each successive generation. You see this is lots of animals, like male deer having very large antlers the impress the females, but take a lot of energy to make and are just damned heavy besides. Male birds with super long tails to impress females, but too long and they have trouble flying.

 

[baywax]

It probably is a disadvantage, to some degree. This is one of those cases where natural selection and sexual selection can have a sort of see-saw effect on certain traits. Females can more easily see and respond to a male who flashes brightly and obviously - so that male reproduces more. But get too bright and too obvious, and those types of males get eaten before they can reproduce much. It probably goes back and forth a little bit for each successive generation. You see this is lots of animals, like male deer having very large antlers the impress the females, but take a lot of energy to make and are just damned heavy besides. Male birds with super long tails to impress females, but too long and they have trouble flying.

This survival/sexual contradiction is also evident in humans. However its often the female human who adopts disadvantageous, but effective mate-luring features like...high heels, implants, application of carcinogenic make-ups and dyes.

 

[LightbulbSun]

I love fireflies on summer nights.

 

[Danger]

I don't know if the things even grow up here. I've never seen one in my life.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Fireflies are quite common in SE WI in the summer months. I would agree with the above that the nocturnal predators don't rely on sight in the first place.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Another reason that fireflies glow is to avoid predators. Fireflies are filled with a nasty tasting chemical called lucibufagens, and after a predator gets a mouthful, it quickly learns to associate the firefly's glow with this bad taste! So not only does the flashing help attract a mate, but it also warns predators to stay away.

http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/units/basics/firefly

 

[baywax]

I don't know if the things even grow up here. I've never seen one in my life.

I doubt it has to do with latitude Danger.

Lampyridae is a family in the beetle order Coleoptera, members of which are commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glow worms due to their conspicuous nocturnal (or, more accurately, crepuscular) use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. The firefly is capable of producing a "cold light" containing no ultraviolet rays, with a wavelength from 510 to 670 nanometers, pale yellowish or reddish green in color, with a lighting efficiency of 96%.
There are more than 2000 species of firefly found in temperate and tropical environments around the world. Many species can be found in marshes or in wet, wooded areas where their larvae have more abundant sources of food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly

Last ones I saw were in the province of Manitoba, Canada. They have severe winters there (sometimes 40 below C) but they also have flooding and a large number of lakes (over 6000) So, for a short time during summer the conditions are right for fireflies to "skip the light fantastic" even in the Great White North, eh?

You'll notice the article mentions how the beetle uses its bioluminescence to attract prey as well as mates... Many smaller insects are attracted to light.

 

[hypatia]

There are 125 species of lightning bugs in the U.S. and Canada.

Each species has their own blinking code. Females of some species mimic the codes of other lightning bugs to lure a hormone-primed male to his death.

Ca'mer big boy!:!)

 

[Danger]

They have severe winters there (sometimes 40 below C)

It gets colder than that here, but not by much. The prairies are all pretty much the same. We don't, however, have any lakes around here.
It's more likely, though, to be on account of me not being in a rural area.

Hypatia, I'm sure that I'd have the same reaction if you flashed me.

 

[jtbell]

I don't know if the things even grow up here.

Where is "here" (at least generally)? I don't think they exist outside of North America, at least not in the countries in South America and Europe from where my college gets its native-speaker foreign language assistants. My wife is their "mother hen" while they're here, and so we have them at our house for dinner as a group occasionally. They always marvel at the fireflies when they're "in season," because they don't have them at home.

I've always had fireflies around in the places where I've lived (Ohio, Michigan, upstate New York, South Carolina).

You do mention prairies. Maybe fireflies need trees or similar vegetation for shelter. I've always lived in places with plenty of trees.

 

[Danger]

I'm in a town close to Calgary, but I also spent 13 years 35 miles SE of Detroit (still in Canada). I started a few miles from here, which was very rural, then moved down there in '65, then back here in '78.

 

[baywax]

I'm in a town close to Calgary, but I also spent 13 years 35 miles SE of Detroit (still in Canada). I started a few miles from here, which was very rural, then moved down there in '65, then back here in '78.

I'm pretty sure you'd have seen the ICE GLOW WORMS that inhabit the frozen reaches of the Bow River then. ()

It's interesting they call them "glow worms". I always wondered where that name applied or came from.

Since when is Calgary urban!?

 

[Danger]

Since when is Calgary urban!?

I think that they began to consider themselves that after they passed the 1,000,000 population point.
And no... I have never seen, nor even heard of, Ice Glow Worms. Sounds like some kind of lure that you'd sell to guys who ice-fish. (And the Bow runs through the middle of my town.)

 

[baywax]

I think that they began to consider themselves that after they passed the 1,000,000 population point.
And no... I have never seen, nor even heard of, Ice Glow Worms. Sounds like some kind of lure that you'd sell to guys who ice-fish. (And the Bow runs through the middle of my town.)

I'm just kidding. But I've heard of ice worms. When I heard about ice worms I thought if they had the capacity to glow (like a glow worm) they would make good landing lights in the northern parts where the airstrips are ice. But I think ice worms are a myth.

Ya, Calgary has grown tremendously. Better hope they don't find oilsands under the place 'cause they'll dig that up too!

 

[jtbell]

Since when is Calgary urban!?

Hey, it's not New York or Chicago or Toronto, but it does have an http://web.presby.edu/~jtbell/transit/images/Calgary/BarlowApproach.jpg (Go Flames! )

 

[Evo]

I've noticed that wet springs seem to bring them out in abundance. But continued wet weather will make them disappear.

I've had late springs where they were so plentiful, that all the surrounding fields were a constant twinkling. It was so beautiful to behold.

 

[Integral]

Where is "here" (at least generally)? I don't think they exist outside of North America, at least not in the countries in South America and Europe from where my college gets its native-speaker foreign language assistants. My wife is their "mother hen" while they're here, and so we have them at our house for dinner as a group occasionally. They always marvel at the fireflies when they're "in season," because they don't have them at home.

I've always had fireflies around in the places where I've lived (Ohio, Michigan, upstate New York, South Carolina).

You do mention prairies. Maybe fireflies need trees or similar vegetation for shelter. I've always lived in places with plenty of trees.

You do not find any fireflys west of the Rocky's, and perhaps not even west of the Mississippi.

 

[hypatia]

The fireflies that occur in the Western United States do not have light-producing organs so you may think that fireflies only occur in the Eastern and Midwestern United States.

lol You got them, there just not as flashy as ours

 

[Integral]

So the question is... Is a firefly that does not flash, still a firefly?

 

[hypatia]

Yep, same species, but there all talk, and no flash

 

[Integral]

I have always heard that the flash was a mating thing, so how do the western males (or is it females?) attract a mate? The organs for the flash must be present, or it would be a different species. Wonder why they aren't armed?

Is this a argument for claims that the east coast is flashier then the west?

 

[hypatia]

Or maybe the west coast is just too layed back to bother with flashing... Like, "here I am honey, if you want it, crawl on over".

When I have some extra time, I'll look into it a bit more.

 

[Integral]

Why do I feel cheated? I always thought that they simply did not live here. Now I learn that they are here, just choose not to be flashy.

 

[Ouabache]

Well, it's the same chemical reaction involved in both cases (with, perhaps, minor differences). The reasons for bioluminescence vary from one species to another, but the mechanism is the same...

Hmmm squids, fireflys and angler fish all generate light using the same chemical reaction? I wonder if these lifeforms stumbled upon this ability independently or are they evolutionarily related? It would be curious if they share the same gene sequence that codes for this mechanism.

 

[iansmith]

Hmmm squids, fireflys and angler fish all generate light using the same chemical reaction? I wonder if these lifeforms stumbled upon this ability independently or are they evolutionarily related? It would be curious if they share the same gene sequence that codes for this mechanism.

As far as I remember, the bioluminescence for some squid is due to symbiotic bacteria of the vibrio and photobacterium species living in specialized tissues rather. The bioluminescence is not produce by the squid itself.

Also, I think the substrate (luciferin) for each group is fairly unrelated but bioluminescence is very common for deep sea fish and in other sea animal and dinoflagella are also capable of biobioluminescence. There might be common evolutionnary start point fairly early on for at least eukaryotes and bacteria might have evolve independently or "stolen" genes from the fish/squid.

 

[baywax]

As far as I remember, the bioluminescence for some squid is due to symbiotic bacteria of the vibrio and photobacterium species living in specialized tissues rather. The bioluminescence is not produce by the squid itself.

Also, I think the substrate (luciferin) for each group is fairly unrelated but bioluminescence is very common for deep sea fish and in other sea animal and dinoflagella are also capable of biobioluminescence. There might be common evolutionnary start point fairly early on for at least eukaryotes and bacteria might have evolve independently or "stolen" genes from the fish/squid.

Is it possible that every living organism carries or carried the ability to produce biobioluminescence yet the ability is only actualized in cases where it has served as a survival trait?