- Fireflies -- or winged beetles, also called lightning bugs due to their bioluminescence used to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. This chemically produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale red, with wavelengths from 510 to 670 nanometers. About 2,100 species of fireflies are found in temperate and tropical climates. Many are in marshes or in wet, wooded areas where their larvae have abundant sources of food.
Fireflies Time Lapse
- Glow Worms -- are the larvae of a small fly. Glow Worms produce a blue-green light. They go through a life cycle from egg to larva, to pupa, to adult. The Glow Worms construct traps like a spider's web made from silk and produce sticky droplets to capture and eat the insects attracted to their glow, which they then feed on. The larval stage is the only stage in their life cycle that they glow. Its here they must get enough sustenance for the rest of their lifecycle. The larvae are believed to live for approximately one year, although this is heavily dependent on environmental conditions and availability of food.
Glow Worm Caves New Zealand
- Fireflies of the Sea -- Certain creatures both on land and sea can produce light through chemical reactions taking place within their bodies known as Bioluminescence. The chemicals in plankton when mixed together are termed luciferins and produce energy which ‘excites’ other particles on vibration and generate light which causes the glow. It is a form of cold light or luminescence. The word “bioluminescence,” which comes from “bio,” meaning life, and “lumin,” meaning light. Most of these plankton glow blue, but a few can glow green, red, or orange. Then there is bioluminescent zooplankton which don’t actually glow in the dark themselves. Instead, they squirt globs of glowing chemicals into the water. Throw your sea monkeys in the garbage. There's a new tiny pet in town . Fill your fish bowl with bioluminescent plankton that glow blue when gently shaken. It looks like magic, but it's actually science.
Bioluminescent Plankton
- Organisms of the Deep -- Bioluminescence on land is seen among certain insect species like fireflies and glowworms some mushrooms and fungi also glow in the dark. In the deep sea, however, bioluminescence is found in virtually every type of animal: squids, octopuses, fishes, shrimps, single-celled organisms, and jellies of all kinds.
Songs
Fireflies by Owl City
I'll Never Know by Elvis
What fire lights a firefly I'll never know
