Where the light is — 01
The brightest lights
are at the arm tips.
Small light organs cluster at the tips of the fourth pair of arms. They produce the squid’s brightest light.
01 — Lights out
Switch it off.
See the light.
Switch off the observation light, and the firefly squid’s glow becomes easier to see. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, more of the tiny lights underneath come into view.
- 3 + 3
- arm tips
- 5
- under each eye
- Hundreds
- underside
Ship lights on
One firefly squid in open water (AI-generated image). With the observation light on you see its shape and markings; with it off, the small lights at its arm tips, under its eyes and on its underside come into view.
Fictional concept — Novaia Labs · AI-generated images
Where the light is
The brightest lights
Where the light is — 02
A row of lights
beneath each eye.
Small light organs form a short row along the lower edge of each eye.
Where the light is — 03
Light that hides
its outline.
The tiny lights on the underside are thought to help conceal the squid’s silhouette from below, blending it with the faint light filtering down from above.
03 — End of the watch
Some things are easier
to see in the dark.
HOTARU is a fictional concept created by Novaia Labs, imagining a night watch aboard a research vessel. It is not footage or data from a real research expedition. Light levels and visibility are represented artistically; real firefly squid can change their bioluminescence depending on conditions. Images were generated with ChatGPT.
© 2026 Novaia Labs — Concept work · Back to the top