Overview

• Researchers documented Psechrus clavis in Taiwan keeping captured winter fireflies (Diaphanes lampyroides) alive so their bioluminescence attracts additional insects to the web.
• Video evidence showed spiders quickly consumed moths but left fireflies for up to about an hour and intermittently checked them during the glow period.
• At National Taiwan University’s Xitou Nature Educational Area, webs outfitted with LED firefly mimics captured three times more total prey and ten times more fireflies than control webs.
• Most of the additional fireflies caught were male, suggesting they mistook the stationary light as a potential mate’s signal.
• The peer-reviewed study, led by Tunghai University’s I‑Min Tso in the Journal of Animal Ecology, highlights the use of prey signals as outsourced lures and notes LED mimics as a key limitation for future tests with live fireflies.