Feb 14, 2022
All this firefly talk has reminded me of a fun fact I learned in a math class on nonlinear dynamics: fireflies spontaneously synchronize their flashes. Like a crowd clapping in unison without communication, each individual tries to flash with those near it and they can establish synchrony pretty quickly. If you poke around on youtube there are some cool videos of the lights going in a wave
That can be true! And interestingly they have to reach a certain density of individuals before they're start synchronizing. But there are many species that glow, and different species flash in different patterns and for different amounts of time, so not all of them do this.
