This film features one of the most extraordinary females
in the animal kingdom.
She's a code breaker, she speaks many languages,
she works in the shadows,
and she's just one inch long.
REESE: In America...
the summer twilight brings out a magical display of glittering lights.
Millions and millions of fireflies...
An ethereal sight.
But behind this twinkling facade is a fierce female...
setting a deadly trap.
This dazzling phenomenon may look random, even chaotic...
...but these mesmerizing lights are in fact an ingenious ancient language.
They are the mating signals of fireflies.
Each species has it's own unique flash code.
The number of flashes and their timing is everything.
Most fireflies have a single flash language.
But there is one kind of female firefly
who can mimic many languages.
She's a photuris firefly, better known...
as the femme fatale.
And she uses this sparky scale for her own devious agenda,
to hijack the courtship signals of another type of firefly, the big dippers.
Her plan is to lure in a big dipper male...
using her best asset, her lantern.
For a few short hours each night the sky is alive with males on a mission to mate.
And after up to two years underground as larvae
these meadows become the femme fatales playground.
For her honey trap to succeed,
the femme fatale needs to mimic the exact flash pattern
of a female big dipper.
And to do that she must understand their courtship code.
Male big dippers flash every six seconds.
When a female big dipper sees a male she likes,
she take a cue from his flash,
waits two seconds and then gives a single flash
from her heart shaped lantern to get his attention.
He notices her and lands nearby.
The femme fatale watches
as the duet of flashes
brings the big dippers together...
and the couple mate.
Now the femme fatale has learnt the big dipper female signals.
She gets ready to lure in her victim.
A male can sense her flash from 12 feet
so she can work from the shadows.
He flashes.
She waits.
She flashes, but too many times and her target isn't fooled.
She tries again.
A single flash, but has she got her timing right?
The big dipper is enticed closer.
She's twice the size of his normal mate,
but her deception is working.
In the darkness, she's laid the perfect trap.
And she is after only one thing...
his blood.
So she eats him alive.
Male big dipper blood contains special toxins
that provide extra protection for her firefly eggs.
A chemical cocktail that this clever assassin will kill for.
Amidst this dangerous dance of love and deception,
this fierce queen has given her eggs the best chance
insuring the next generation of femme fatales.
Seductress and vampire, this tiny firefly is both,
but it's all for the kids.
It makes you wonder how far would you go for your own brood?