Species That Glow In The Dark

From the ocean depths to remote rainforests, bioluminescent organisms light up the natural world. We take an illuminating look at the species that glow in the dark.

- Jheni Osman

The first time you spot a glowworm, you might do a doubletake. Its eerie yellow-green light seems so alien, it almost doesn’t look like something that belongs on planet Earth. In the UK, you’re most likely to see the common glow-worm, found across Europe and Asia. In the northern hemisphere, ‘glow-worms’ are not worms at all, but beetles from the family Lampyridae. The females don’t have wings and look similar to the larvae. During the day, the female hides underground. At night, she crawls up a plant stem and turns on the light in her abdomen in the hope of attracting a passing mate.

In Australasia, the term ‘glow-worm’ refers to the larvae of little flies that feed on fungi. Some of these fungus gnats are carnivorous, luring prey with a blue-green glow emitted from a light organ at the end of their body. The bioluminescent spectacle of the lethal Arachnocampa luminosa larvae draws tourists from around the world to sites such as Waitomo Cave in New Zealand.

Glowing in the dark is obviously useful for predation or communication for all sorts of species – whether on land at night or in the deep sea where there is little or no sunlight. But the majority of bioluminescent creatures live in the ocean depths – it is estimated that up to 90 per cent of life creates some form of light in the gloomy twilight zone, 500–1,000m down. Researchers think bioluminescence is more prevalent in the oceans because it evolved much earlier in marine species than terrestrial ones. Bioluminescence is also rare in freshwater environments, probably because these habitats developed later and so biodiversity is lower, and fresh water is often filled with sediment, so glowing lights are less visible in the murkier conditions.

Inner workings