The Love Life Of A FIREFLY -- Flashy & Over Decisive !

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Among all species, one thing is always common that is 'LOVE'. Without love no species can survive. Some species make love or simply mate to produce offspring and some species loves for having an emotional connection and satisfaction. 

Of all the major species, there is Firefly which also has a romantic life, at least for a few hours but sure it has. 

So it begins with a flash. By flash, I mean their bioluminescence body. Firefly always flashing their body but why is that? Why do fireflies flash? 

"For signaling a vibrant mating call" is the standard response. Males flash to attract females, and mating begins when the flash carries the right rhythm.

But now I have read that female fireflies are far pickier than that. The flashing, so attractive to humans and fireflies alike, is necessary  but not always standard move for a mating call. Now, females has to see who is the healthiest among all the mating callers.

Source

According to a research at Tufts University, females of these fireflies take nutrition into account as they choose with whom they'll mate and who'll father their offspring. 

That sexy flashing signal begins, only begins the selection procedure but doesn't end it anywhere soon.

Two researchers found that females are choose mostly those males who give them a larger “wedding gift.” And by wedding gift, I don't even imagine to understand what would that be?

Many insects inseminate with a spermatophore, a protein-rich structure that contains sperm — and nutrients for the eggs that develop after fertilization. And this spermatophore is not a small deal for males, it's actually a kind of investment for them. So basically it ends with females choosing a mate by implementing many standard procedures for a male to qualify them. 

All insects kind of mate like this, but how fireflies do that is more like human. Like humans, fireflies spends a huge amount of time and efforts to select the best partner. Their life is short so they don't generally have to care much about the life problems like humans. So their love story begins with signaling, and after so much efforts and hard work, it ends with mating.

Kind of strange, but still s love story. A Firefly Love Story.

Thanks for reading.

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