Collaborative Research: Shedding light on firefly phylogenetic systematics and the evolution of their carnal signal types

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Few organisms capture human attention and imagination better than fireflies. Yet, we know exceptionally little about the 2000 species of fireflies. Fireflies play important roles in medical sciences and evolutionary, ecological, and behavioral studies. New species are described regularly while many others are under imminent threat of extinction. What is lacking is a tree of life (i.e., a phylogeny) for fireflies to help organize all species and explore their evolutionary history. After constructing this tree, the research will explore the evolution of the different courtship signals of fireflies (flashes, glows, or chemical odors), while exploring the structure and shape of the organ that produces the light. In addition, the research will determine the trade-off in the size and shape of sensors (eyes and antenna), when the mating signal changes from odors to light (glows or flashes) and vice versa. With these data, the signals and behavior of fossil fireflies and museum specimens can be predicted and specific questions about their evolution can be answered. The project will train graduate students and include outreach and citizen science efforts to actively engage the public. Websites, videos, and identification keys will assist both scientists and the public to better understand the diversity and ecology of fireflies across the US and world. Bioluminescence is widely scattered across the tree of life. Fireflies (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) are the most diverse, well-known, and well-studied bioluminescent group. The bioluminescence and flash patterns of adult fireflies are often used as textbook example of species-specific courtship signals. However, we still remain in the dark about their phylogenetic relationships and the evolution of their sexual communication systems. We will reconstruct a phylogeny across the worldwide diversity of fireflies. The diversity of their sexual signals, light producing organs, and signal receptors make these beetles an ideal lineage to study how the evolution of traits associated with sexual signaling and may have affected species diversity. This research has three major goals: 1) reconstruct the first large-scale phylogenetic hypotheses for Lampyridae based on extensive taxon sampling (~350 taxa) using both NGS and morphological data sets; 2) characterize the morphological phenotypes associated with the three main types of sexual communication based on light organ, eye, and antennal morphology of extant and fossil taxa, as well as of rare museum specimens; 3) reconstruct the evolutionary history of firefly sexual signal modes, and test for relationships between signal mode and species diversification. This research will catalyze studies of the Lampyridae and provide important empirical data on the role of sexual signaling and diversification that will be of general use to researchers across numerous disciplines.