Thousands of fireflies can flash in perfect unison with no conductor

In a few places on Earth, including the Great Smoky Mountains, Photinus carolinus fireflies synchronise their flashing across entire hillsides, building from scattered individual flickers into waves that pulse together then go dark as one. Each insect only follows a simple local rule, resetting its rhythm when it sees nearby flashes, yet that alone is enough to produce the collective display.

— Jonathan Copeland & Andrew Moiseff, Synchronous Fireflies — Journal of Insect Behavior, Photinus carolinus synchrony studies

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