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The firefly squid belongs to the Cephalopoda class and the superorder Decapodiformes, commonly known as squids. Their body is divided between a distinct head and a mantle, and the layout of the body is bilaterally symmetrical. They are soft-bodied organisms which contain a skeletal structure composed of chitin. They have relatively large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles. They are further classified into the order Oegopsida for possessing the characteristic traits of having no tentacle pockets in the head and no suckers on the buccal supports. They belong to the family of Enoploteuthidae, based on the hooks on their tentacles.

On average an adult firefly squid is approximately 7.5 cm (3 in) in length.They are brown/red in color, but emit blue light by their photophores. These photophores can be found all over the squids body, but the brightest light is emitted from three largest photophores at the tips of the arms. There are five slightly smaller photophores surrounding each eye, and hundreds more of smaller size dotted along the rest of its body

The firefly squid inhabits the waters off the coast of Japan. The depth at which these squids can be found varies (300400 m or 1,0001,300 ft during the day, and 2060 m or 70200 ft during the night) over the course of a day,[8] as they are one of the several species of squid that participates in diel vertical migration. For this reason, they also experience a significant change in environmental temperature conditions throughout the course of a day(36 C or 3743 F during the day and 515 C or 4159 F during the night). The firefly squid is especially well known for its yearly migration to the coastal waters of Toyama Bay for the purpose of reproduction