Abstract
Left alone, Photinus carolinus fireflies flash without an intrinsic period, making it uncertain when they may flash next. Yet when gathering at the mating lek in large swarms, these fireflies transition into predictability, synchronizing with their neighbors with a rhythmic periodicity. Here we propose a mechanism for emergence of synchrony and periodicity, and formulate the principle in a mathematical framework. Remarkably, with no fitting parameters, analytic predictions from this simple principle and framework agree strikingly well with data. Next, we add further sophistication to the framework using a computational model featuring groups of random oscillators via integrate-and-fire interactions controlled by a tunable parameter. This agent-based model of P. carolinus fireflies interacting in swarms of increasing density also shows quantitatively similar phenomenology and reduces to the analytic framework in the appropriate limit of the tunable parameter. We discuss our findings and note that the resulting dynamics follow the style of a decentralized follow-the-leader synchronization, where any of the randomly flashing individuals may take the role of the leader of any subsequent synchronized flash burst.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
