Predicting the geographic distribution of sexual signaling systems of Colombian fireflies

Fireflies are a charismatic group of beetles whose biology and life history are poorly known in the neotropical region. Three types of sexual signaling systems have been observed in fireflies: photic signals, a combination of photic and pheromone signals and pheromone signals. In this study, the geographic distribution of sexual signaling systems of Colombian fireflies is modeled using the distribution modeling software MaxEnt. Twenty bioclimatic and elevation data layers were used along with specimen locality data to predict the distribution of sexual signaling systems. Predicted distributions for each system were found to be significantly different than random, and each system was qualitatively found to be different from the others.