Glowing Firefly Squids — Blue Blobs of Japan

Glowing Firefly Squid of Japan - The Blue Glowing Blob

Glowing Firefly Squids of Japan

This image recently went viral on all over the social media and image sharing websites including Reddit, Pinterest, Stumble and a few others. These glowing blue creatures are actually known as Glowing Firefly Squids and considered to be the most beautiful creature of marine life on earth.

The scientific name of Firefly Squid is Watasenia Scintillans, its considered cephalopod and is around three inches long on average. The reason behind glowing a beautiful blue color is its body covered with photophores and by glowing light it actually communicate with other Firefly Squids.

The light is produced due to a chemical reaction, bioluminescence (the production and emission of light by a living organism. Its name is a hybrid word, originating from the Greek bios for “living” and the Latin lumen “light”.)

Now that the reason behind its color has been told, next questions arise that why its called a Firefly? Fireflies contains photophores which are very similar in nature to type of photophores found in these species and hence they are also names after them.

These Firefly Squids control their light to gather more Squids, to scare off their enemies or to attract small fishes around them on which these Firefly Squids feed. Firefly Squids can also use there light to blend into different backgrounds to hide themselves and have  superb abilities in camouflage.

Glowing Firefly Squid of Japan - The Blue Glowing Blob

Glowing Firefly Squid of Japan - The Blue Glowing Blob


Some more facts

  • Firefly Squids spend the day at depths of several hundred meters & return to the surface when night falls
  • They can light up their whole body to attract a mate, matting season usually lasts from March to June
  • These Squids are commercially fished in Japan, accounting the annual catch in thousand tons

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