Skip to main content
Log in

A new chapter in the physics of firefly swarms

  • Comment
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Physics

View current issue Sign up to alerts

Orit Peleg describes how a blend of models and experiments are revealing new insights about the intricate physics of firefly swarms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1: Physics of firefly synchronization through models and experiments.

References

  1. Strogatz, S. Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order (Hyperion, 2003).

  2. Sarfati, R. & Peleg, O. Chimera states among synchronous fireflies. Sci. Adv. 8, eadd6690 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Sarfati, R., Hayes, J. C. & Peleg, O. Self-organization in natural swarms of Photinus carolinus synchronous fireflies. Sci. Adv. 7, eabg9259 (2021).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Sarfati, R. et al. Spatio-temporal reconstruction of emergent flash synchronization in firefly swarms via stereoscopic 360-degree cameras. J. R. Soc. Interface 17, 20200179 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Ramírez-Ávila, G. M. et al. A simple game and its dynamical richness for modeling synchronization in firefly-like oscillators. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 231, 203–212 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. McCrea, M., Ermentrout, B. & Rubin, J. E. A model for the collective synchronization of flashing in Photinus carolinus. J. R. Soc. Interface 19, 20220439 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Sarfati, R. et al. Emergent periodicity in the collective synchronous flashing of fireflies. eLife 12, e78908 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Wang, B. & Aljadeff, J. Multiplicative shot-noise: A new route to stability of plastic networks. Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 068101 (2022).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. O’Keeffe, K. P., Hong, H. & Strogatz, S. H. Oscillators that sync and swarm. Nat. Commun. 8, 1504 (2017).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Martin, O. et al. Embracing firefly flash pattern variability with data-driven species classification. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.08.531653 (2023).

Download references

Acknowledgements

O.P. acknowledges support from National Science Foundation grant #2239331, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant #FG-2023-20488 and Research Cooperation for Science Advancement grant #28219.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Orit Peleg.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Peleg, O. A new chapter in the physics of firefly swarms. Nat Rev Phys 6, 72–74 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00675-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00675-z

  • Springer Nature Limited

We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.

Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.

Navigation