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Firefly Squid — printable fact sheet
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Firefly Squid
Watasenia scintillans
The firefly squid is a small deep-water cephalopod studded with photophores — light-producing organs running along its arms, body and around its eyes — and it uses them in two entirely opposite ways. Pointed downward, the lights are camouflage: the squid matches the faint glow f…
Did you know?
- The Firefly Squid’s bioluminescent displays are so bright that they can sometimes be seen from the surface, lighting up entire sections of coastline during their spawning season.
- Its lights point downward to erase its own silhouette against the glow from above — lit up and invisible at the same time. It is one of the very few cephalopods with colour vision, carrying three visual pigments where an octopus has one. Every spring it fills Toyama Bay to spawn, turning the water glowing blue. It lives only about a year, dying soon after it breeds.
What I learned
Draw the firefly squid
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