Many key advances in our understanding of firefly biology and signaling have been made over the past two decades. Here we review this recent research, which includes new phylogenetic results that shed light on the evolution of courtship signal diversity within the family Lampyridae, new insights into firefly flash control, and the discovery of firefly nuptial gifts. We present a comprehensive overview of sexual selection in lampyrids, including evidence from Photinus fireflies that females choose their mates on the basis of male flash signals, and discuss the importance of examining both precopulatory and postcopulatory sexual selection in this group. Finally, we review recent findings on firefly chemical defenses, and discuss their implications for flash signal evolution in response to generalist predators as well as specialist predatory fireflies. This review provides new insight into how firefly flash signals have been shaped by the dual evolutionary processes of sexual selection (mate choice) and natural selection (predation), and proposes several exciting directions for future research.

中文翻译：

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萤火虫的闪光信号演变，伴侣选择和捕食。

在过去的二十年中，我们对萤火虫生物学和信号传导的理解取得了许多重要进展。在这里，我们回顾了这项最新的研究，其中包括新的系统发育结果，这些结果揭示了萤火虫科内部求爱信号多样性的演变，对萤火虫闪光控制的新见解以及萤火虫婚庆礼物的发现。我们提供了笼统的性选择的全面概述，包括来自萤火虫萤火虫的证据，即雌性根据男性闪光信号选择配偶，并讨论了在该组中检查交配前和交配后性选择的重要性。最后，我们回顾了萤火虫化学防御的最新发现，并讨论它们对通配捕食者和专科掠食性萤火虫的反应对闪光信号进化的影响。这篇综述提供了关于性选择（伴侣选择）和自然选择（捕食）的双重进化过程如何塑造萤火虫闪光信号的新见解，并为未来的研究提出了一些令人兴奋的方向。