{"id":555223,"date":"2026-03-23T11:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T11:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/555223\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T11:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T11:56:16","slug":"i-would-wonder-if-i-was-just-seeing-things-scientists-make-illuminating-discovery-in-south-carolina-swamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/555223\/","title":{"rendered":"“I would wonder if I was just seeing things.\u201d Scientists make illuminating discovery in South Carolina swamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a light show worthy of an underground rave, every May the fireflies of Congaree National Park, South Carolina, put on a coordinated display that illuminates the forest. Now researchers have worked out how they keep their flashes in synch. Their results are reported in\u00a0bioRxiv<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lots of animals collaborate with members of their own kind to create features that are bigger than they are. Think starling murmurations, termite towers<\/a> and coral reefs<\/a>. In the southeastern United States, thousands of male fireflies<\/a> (Photuris frontalis) come together to attract mates, by producing a group display of\u00a0synchronised, bioluminescent<\/a> light pulses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s magical,\u201d says computer scientist Orit Peleg, from the University of Colorado Boulder. \u201cAt certain times of night, fireflies have a single rhythm for the entire group, and they\u2019re very punctual.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a mesmerising and much-loved natural spectacle, but it raises an important question. How do the fireflies keep the beat?\u00a0<\/p>\n

To find out, scientists captured\u00a0individual\u00a0males and exposed them to a dim LED light, designed to mimic another flashing male. Fireflies normally make one or two flashes per second. The LED made around one to three flashes per second, but when the tempo was increased or decreased, the fireflies matched it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FireflyFirefly swarm captured in Congaree National Park, South Carolina. Credit: Nolan Bonnie<\/p>\n

The researchers found that the fireflies were most likely to change their rhythm when the LED was\u00a0almost synchronous. If the LED blinked immediately before the firefly, the male often rushed its next flash to catch up. If the LED blinked right after, the firefly waited a little longer, then flashed. When the LED was completely out of synch, however, the firefly usually ignored it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Based on these observations, Peleg and colleagues devised a mathematical formula, known as a \u2018phase-response curve,\u2019 which describes how the external light source drives fireflies to modify the timing of their flashes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis research opens the door to discovering other examples of synchronisation in nature that we haven\u2019t seen yet,\u201d says Owen Martin, who was also involved in the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Firefly\u201cFor a whole season, I spent pretty much every night in the dark watching lights blink at a fixed frequency,\u201d recalls Martin. “Then, occasionally, I\u2019d get this magical experience where I\u2019d see the firefly just start syncing with the light. I would wonder if I was just seeing things.\u201d Credit: Nolan Bonnie<\/p>\n

In addition, conservationists could use this knowledge to help identify different species of light-emitting insects and monitor their population sizes. \u201cSuch advances could transform how we study and protect firefly biodiversity,\u201d the authors say.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, engineers could also learn from the fireflies and use the relevant mathematics to help make better drones. Perhaps one day, we will see engineered swarms of drones that communicate with each other via firefly-inspired pulses of light.<\/p>\n

Top image: Researcher Owen Martin uses a red light to hunt for fireflies in Congaree National Park, Credit: Owen Martin<\/p>\n

More amazing wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a light show worthy of an underground rave, every May the fireflies of Congaree National Park, South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-555223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}