Glowworms are juvenile stage of fireflies; i.e. their caterpillars. In some species of fireflies females remain wingless even at maturity and are called as glowworms; only males of that species have wings and are capable of flight. It is understood that main food of glowworms is snails. It is really wonderful to know how this seemingly harmless grub could kill a snail. Slightly disturbed, snails pull back their entire bodies in a shell and the trapdoor is shut very tight. How the glowworms get to feed on these snails is just miraculous. These insects belong to Lampyridae family. Light produced by the glowworms and fireflies is called as Biolumienescence.
In Panvel, Maharashtra, I saw another type of glowworm with its body having brown bands and another one which did not look like a caterpillar at all. The later could be the fully matured wingless glowworm female. As the glowworms remain almost still and emit steady light continuously in dark, it was very easy to photograph them in pitch dark room, using their own light. For that I had to give a long exposure to my camera. I also wanted to take photograph of fireflies in their own light. This was not possible because they fly around and their light is flickering. So I caught about 8 fireflies and kept them in a transparent plastic bag.(These were released after photography session) This bag was kept on a National Geographic magazine in a pitch dark room. Then I photographed the magazine in only light of the fireflies. One rainy night I saw a firefly settle on a window glass pane of my room in Vavoshi, Maharashtra;thus I shot a video of its flickering light.
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| Glowowrm |
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| Glowowrm light |
Certain chemicals in these insects' bodies, including luciferin, combines with Oxygen, cool light is produced. But the most wonderful thing is that how these insects are capable of controlling the light as Oxygen and the chemicals are present in the bodies all the time. It is said that the flickering light is signals for attracting mates. It is also reported that light emitting also is to warn the predators that they are unpalatable if preyed upon.
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| Firefly |
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| Fireflies photographed in pitch dark using their own lights |
In Panvel, Maharashtra, I saw another type of glowworm with its body having brown bands and another one which did not look like a caterpillar at all. The later could be the fully matured wingless glowworm female. As the glowworms remain almost still and emit steady light continuously in dark, it was very easy to photograph them in pitch dark room, using their own light. For that I had to give a long exposure to my camera. I also wanted to take photograph of fireflies in their own light. This was not possible because they fly around and their light is flickering. So I caught about 8 fireflies and kept them in a transparent plastic bag.(These were released after photography session) This bag was kept on a National Geographic magazine in a pitch dark room. Then I photographed the magazine in only light of the fireflies. One rainy night I saw a firefly settle on a window glass pane of my room in Vavoshi, Maharashtra;thus I shot a video of its flickering light.
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| Another wingless glowworm |
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