Fireflies offer a unique glimpse into collective animal communication. Their signal is composed of a species-specific on/off light pattern repeated periodically. It is similar to Morse code and likely as close to computer language as it gets in animal communication. The firefly's light displays are courtship rituals: flying males announce their presence as suitable mates to the females on the ground. Females prefer males producing an "optimal" light pattern, as judged from the standpoint of that species. Thousands of fireflies flashing in a swarm can create immense visual clutter, however. In addition, different species can occupy the same habitat. This presents a challenge akin to the "cocktail party problem" studied in neuroscience: the difficulty of focusing auditory attention on a specific stimulus while filtering out many other competing but irrelevant signals. Our work aims to identify the circumstances and constraints that lead to different levels of coordination: from light patterns that increase detectability at the expense of other individuals to synchronization among conspecific males flashing in unison.

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R. Sarfati, J. Hayes, O. Peleg
Self-organization in natural swarms of Photinus carolinus synchronous fireflies
Science Advances 7 (28), eabg9259 (2021)
 

R. Sarfati, O. Peleg
Chimera states among synchronous fireflies
Science Advances 8, eadd6690 (2022)

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O. Peleg
A new chapter in the physics of firefly swarms
Nature Review Physics (2023)