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Male fireflies flash their luminous bellies in impressive patterns to attract mates. Some species do this synchronously as a group. How do they handle this?
To answer this question, mathematicians at the University of Pittsburgh used a model normally used to map brain cell activity. With this, they first determined the blinking behavior of one firefly, then two, then an entire swarm. They looked at the effect on blinking of the number of fireflies, distance from each other and flight speed.
By turning these nodes, they could influence in the model if a firefly could see another firefly and determine how quickly they could react to each other. This created spiral and wave patterns, similar to what has been observed in nature when synchronizing groups of fireflies.
They were also able to see that an individual firefly blinked less regularly than an entire swarm. The model can also be used to examine the effect of environmental factors on blinking. Think of air pollution or the time of day: both affect how flies can see each other.
Read more: Pitt mathematicians explain how some fireflies blink in sync.
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