![]() ![]() ![]() These findings suggest that glow-worms can react rapidly to anthropogenic changes in nocturnal light levels, and that prolonged periods of artificial light trigger females to stop sexual signalling. Furthermore, small females were more likely to cease their glow, and responded faster to the light, than larger females. The results show that females were more likely to cease glowing when the exposure to light was longer. ![]() The study included three treatments: no artificial light (control), 15 min of artificial light, and 45 min of artificial light. Accordingly, we investigated whether the duration of artificial light affects sexual signalling in female glow-worms, Lampyris noctiluca, which are flightless and attract flying males to mate by emitting glow that is interfered by light pollution. Limiting the use of artificial light may mitigate these negative effects. This interference can change the behaviour of the affected organisms, and hence compromise the viability of their populations. Living in a perpetual blaze of artificial light and rarely venturing along unlit country paths at night, it is perhaps unsurprising that most people are oblivious of the presence of these radiant insects.Artificial light at night is increasing globally, interfering with both sensory ecology and temporal rhythms of organisms, from zooplankton to mammals. As the headlights flared, her lamp faded like a torch with dying batteries. I found another female glowing on the mown verge in front of my car. The flightless females don’t move more than a metre or two in their adult life, so habitat fragmentation or loss of chalk grassland and hedgerows poses a threat, while increased light pollution disrupts mating behaviour, with males sometimes being attracted to street lamps instead of females. The status of the glow-worm in Britain is poorly documented, but there is evidence to suggest population decline. Some of them were mating, with the smaller, dull-brown, hard wing-cased males clinging to their backs. Photograph: FLPA/Rex/Shutterstockīy the time we had returned to the car park we had counted 14 displaying females. The glow-worm’s bioluminescence – pulsing light flashes from its abdomen – acts as a courtship signal or warning to enemies. ![]()
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