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Social signaling via bioluminescent blinks drives schooling behavior in the flashlight fish Anomalops katoptron

The bioluminescent flashlight fish Anomalops katoptron live in schools of several hundred specimens. To understand how flashlight fish, integrate bioluminescent signaling into their schooling behavior, we analyzed movement profiles and blink frequencies. Isolated specimen of A. katoptron show a high motivation to align with fixed or moving artificial light organs. Depending on presented frequencies A. katoptron responds with a reduction in swimming speed and its own blink frequency. Higher presented blink frequencies reduce the nearest neighbor distance. In the natural environment A. katoptron is changing its blink frequencies and nearest neighbor distance in a context specific manner. Blink frequencies are increased from day to night and during avoidance behavior, while nearest neighbor distance is decreased with increasing blink frequencies. A. katoptron changes its blink frequencies by modifying light organ occlusion. Our results suggest that visually transmitted information via specific blink patterns determine intraspecific communication and group cohesion in schooling A. katoptron.