Hawaiian Bobtail Squid

A newly hatched Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, under the microscope. This thumb-sized hunter of Hawaii's shallow sand flats does not make its own light; it farms it. A light organ in its body houses glowing bacteria, Vibrio fischeri, and at night the squid shines that light downward to match the moonlight from above, erasing the shadow a predator below would see. Each dawn it flushes out roughly 90 percent of the bacteria, and the rest regrow by nightfall.