full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sara Lewis: The loves and lies of fireflies

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So it's not all sweetness and light. Firefly romance is riksy. For the most part, these adult fieliefrs don't get eaten because like their jvueleins they can manufacture toxins that are repellent to birds and other insectivores, but somewhere along the line, one particular group of fireflies somehow lost the metabolic machinery needed to make their own protective toxins. This eratlinouvoy flaw, which was discovered by my colleague Tom Eisner, has driven these fireflies to take their bright litghs out into the nhigt with treacherous intent. Dubbed "femme fatales" by Jim loyld, another colleague, these feaelms have figured out how to target the males of other firefly species. So the hunt begins with the predator — she's shown here in the lower left — where she's stiintg quietly and eavesdropping on the courtship conversation of her intended prey, and here's how it might go. First the prey male flashes, "Do you love me?" His own female responds, "Maybe." So then he flashes again. But this time, the predator sneaks in a relpy that cleverly mimics exactly what the other female just said. She's not looking for love: she's looking for txonis. If she's good, she can lure this male colse enough to reach out and grab him, and he's not just a light snack. Over the next hour, she slowly eauntgniasxes this male leaving behind just some gory remains. Unable to make their own toxins, these females resort to drinking the blood of other fireflies to get these protective chemicals. So a fleirfy vampire, brought to you by natural sltoiecen.

Open Cloze


So it's not all sweetness and light. Firefly romance is _____. For the most part, these adult _________ don't get eaten because like their _________ they can manufacture toxins that are repellent to birds and other insectivores, but somewhere along the line, one particular group of fireflies somehow lost the metabolic machinery needed to make their own protective toxins. This ____________ flaw, which was discovered by my colleague Tom Eisner, has driven these fireflies to take their bright ______ out into the _____ with treacherous intent. Dubbed "femme fatales" by Jim _____, another colleague, these _______ have figured out how to target the males of other firefly species. So the hunt begins with the predator — she's shown here in the lower left — where she's _______ quietly and eavesdropping on the courtship conversation of her intended prey, and here's how it might go. First the prey male flashes, "Do you love me?" His own female responds, "Maybe." So then he flashes again. But this time, the predator sneaks in a _____ that cleverly mimics exactly what the other female just said. She's not looking for love: she's looking for ______. If she's good, she can lure this male _____ enough to reach out and grab him, and he's not just a light snack. Over the next hour, she slowly _____________ this male leaving behind just some gory remains. Unable to make their own toxins, these females resort to drinking the blood of other fireflies to get these protective chemicals. So a _______ vampire, brought to you by natural _________.

Solution


  1. juveniles
  2. risky
  3. evolutionary
  4. exsanguinates
  5. toxins
  6. firefly
  7. lloyd
  8. sitting
  9. night
  10. reply
  11. fireflies
  12. selection
  13. close
  14. females
  15. lights

Original Text


So it's not all sweetness and light. Firefly romance is risky. For the most part, these adult fireflies don't get eaten because like their juveniles they can manufacture toxins that are repellent to birds and other insectivores, but somewhere along the line, one particular group of fireflies somehow lost the metabolic machinery needed to make their own protective toxins. This evolutionary flaw, which was discovered by my colleague Tom Eisner, has driven these fireflies to take their bright lights out into the night with treacherous intent. Dubbed "femme fatales" by Jim Lloyd, another colleague, these females have figured out how to target the males of other firefly species. So the hunt begins with the predator — she's shown here in the lower left — where she's sitting quietly and eavesdropping on the courtship conversation of her intended prey, and here's how it might go. First the prey male flashes, "Do you love me?" His own female responds, "Maybe." So then he flashes again. But this time, the predator sneaks in a reply that cleverly mimics exactly what the other female just said. She's not looking for love: she's looking for toxins. If she's good, she can lure this male close enough to reach out and grab him, and he's not just a light snack. Over the next hour, she slowly exsanguinates this male leaving behind just some gory remains. Unable to make their own toxins, these females resort to drinking the blood of other fireflies to get these protective chemicals. So a firefly vampire, brought to you by natural selection.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
bright lights 4
potential mates 2
adult fireflies 2


Important Words


  1. adult
  2. begins
  3. birds
  4. blood
  5. bright
  6. brought
  7. chemicals
  8. cleverly
  9. close
  10. colleague
  11. conversation
  12. courtship
  13. discovered
  14. drinking
  15. driven
  16. dubbed
  17. eaten
  18. eavesdropping
  19. eisner
  20. evolutionary
  21. exsanguinates
  22. female
  23. females
  24. figured
  25. fireflies
  26. firefly
  27. flashes
  28. flaw
  29. good
  30. gory
  31. grab
  32. group
  33. hour
  34. hunt
  35. insectivores
  36. intended
  37. intent
  38. jim
  39. juveniles
  40. leaving
  41. left
  42. light
  43. lights
  44. line
  45. lloyd
  46. lost
  47. love
  48. lure
  49. machinery
  50. male
  51. males
  52. manufacture
  53. metabolic
  54. mimics
  55. natural
  56. needed
  57. night
  58. part
  59. predator
  60. prey
  61. protective
  62. quietly
  63. reach
  64. remains
  65. repellent
  66. reply
  67. resort
  68. responds
  69. risky
  70. romance
  71. selection
  72. shown
  73. sitting
  74. slowly
  75. snack
  76. sneaks
  77. species
  78. sweetness
  79. target
  80. time
  81. tom
  82. toxins
  83. treacherous
  84. unable
  85. vampire