The unique gift of fireflies

In addition to glowing to seduce mates, male fireflies also offer a unique 'gift' for mating.

That is the sperm bundle (also called sperm cell) of the male - a bag containing sperm and nutrients for the female.

Scientists at Tufts University (USA) use LED lights to make light flashes to suggest male partners of fireflies.

Scientists still do not understand how children have
can appreciate the unique 'gift' of male fireflies

In the natural world, females are often very picky about males and they only glow in response to the animals they have chosen. But in this experiment, after only a few minutes of glowing, the males and females were paired and entered their nest.

Later, the team used infrared light cameras to return to the male flirtatious video, to find out what happened in the dark when the fireflies were no longer glowing.

The video shows that when both are paired, the glowing way does not seem to affect the result of mating. Instead, children are interested in males with large-sized 'love gifts' .

The team has not yet explained why children value the 'gift' size to choose a partner, while the 'gift delivery' process takes place inside the body.

According to Dr. South, member of the research team: 'The light was quite important at first, but once the fireflies were in contact with each other, the children would switch to another option.

'Researching all the stages from flirting to mating in this insect is very important to understanding the process of maintaining their race. If we stop our research after the initial courtship, we have missed a strange and surprising discovery, 'said Dr. South on the BBC.