Sara Margery Lewis is an American biologist, professor, author, and firefly expert. Lewis is a professor emerita of biology at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

, co-chair of the Firefly Specialist Group at the Species Survival Commission of the

International Union for the Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

, and author of the 2016 book, ''Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies''.

Education

Lewis graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

with an AB in Biology in 1976. After Harvard, she studied at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

where she earned a Ph.D. in Zoology in 1984. Based at a Smithsonian Institution marine station off the coast of Belize, Lewis' graduate work focused on the subject of coral reef ecology, examining the mechanisms behind which herbivorous fish grazing mediates competitive interactions between seaweeds and reef-building corals.

Academic career

In 1985, Lewis returned to Harvard where she spent the next five years as a postdoctoral fellow in organismic and

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biolo ...

. Her postdoctoral research analyzed the subject of

sexual selection Sexual selection is a mechanism of evolution in which members of one sex mate choice, choose mates of the other sex to mating, mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex ...

fireflies The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

and flour beetles. In 1991, Lewis joined the faculty at the

Department of Biology. Lewis has taught classes in biostatistics, ecology, and science communication as well as classes more closely related to her research including Edible Insects and Evaluating Firefly Extinction Risk Seminar.

Scientific research

Lewis' research work has focused on coral reef ecology, the evolution of reproductive behavior in insects, and fireflies. Lewis has published research on these topics including demonstrating that both cryptic female choice and male sperm competition contribute to postcopulatory sexual selection in Tribolium flour beetles; showing that Photinus firefly females choose mates based on male flash characteristics; revealing the presence, coevolution, and composition of firefly nuptial gifts; and describing how hermit crabs queue up to form vacancy chains that distribute resource benefits to multiple crabs.

Firefly conservation

Lewis is a founding member of Fireflyers International, a group dedicated to the conservation of fireflies and their habitats. Since 2018, Lewis has worked with the Species Survival Commission of the

as co-chair of the Firefly Specialist Group, a team of international experts who identified the key threats faced by fireflies, which include habitat degradation, light pollution, pesticides, and climate change.

Works

Books

* Lewis, S. 2016. Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies. Princeton University Press. 250 pp. (Winner of 2016 Best Science/Nature Book - Independent Book Publisher Award) * Lewis, S. 2017. Leuchten in der Stille: Über Glühwürmchen und das Glück des Moments. Bastei Lubbe.

Selected articles

* Owens A.C.S*., S.M. Lewis. 2022. Artificial light impacts the mate success of female fireflies. Royal Society Open Science 9(8):220468. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.220468. * Owens, A.C.S.*, C. Dressler, S.M. Lewis. 2022. Costs and benefits of “insect-friendly” artificial lights are taxon-specific. Oecologia 199 487-497. doi.org/10.1007/s00442-022-05189-6 * Fallon, C.E. A.C Walker, S.M. Lewis, J. Cicero, L. Faust, C.M Heckscher, C.X Pérez-Hernández, B. Pfeiffer, S. Jepsen. 2021. Evaluating firefly extinction risk: initial Red List assessments for North America. PLOS One 16(11): e0259379. * Owens, A.C.S.* and S.M. Lewis. 2021. Narrow-spectrum artificial light silences female fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). Insect Conservation and Diversity 4: 199-210. * Lewis, S.M. A Thancharoen, CH Wong, T López‐Palafox, PV Santos, C Wu… 2021. Firefly tourism: Advancing a global phenomenon toward a brighter future. Conservation Science and Practice e391 * Owens, A.C.S.* and S.M. Lewis. 2020. Effects of artificial light on growth, development, and dispersal of two North American fireflies. Journal of Insect Physiology. doi.org/10.1016/j.jinsphys.2021.104200 * Lewis, S.M., C.H. Wong, A.C.S. Owens*, C. Fallon, S. Jepsen, A. Thancharoen, CS. Wu, R De Cock, M. Novak, T. Lopez-Palafox, V. Khoo, and J.M. Reed. 2020. A global perspective on firefly extinction threats. BioScience 70: 157-67. doi: 10.1093/biosci/biz157

References

External links

"Fireflies Silent Sparks"
April 1, 2022 National Wildlife Magazine
"For the Sake of their Glow"
June 6, 2017 Undark Magazine
"China’s Endangered Fireflies"
September 11, 2017, Scientific American online
"The Mysteries of Firefly Sex: A Scientist’s Notes from the Field"
May 11, 2016, Scientific American online
"Night Workers: How Evolution Drives the Firefly Dance"
June 8 2016, The Guardian {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Sara 1953 births Living people Tufts University faculty Harvard College alumni 21st-century American biologists Scientists from New Haven, Connecticut